Jackie Ballard: Principle into power

Jackie Ballard, MP for Taunton, is the Liberal Democrats' local government and women's spokeswoman. Here she sets out her vision for BBC News Online.

Britain needs the Liberal Democrats more now than ever - to campaign on the issues where the Labour government is failing and where the Tories won't even try.

First, we must find new ways of tackling poverty and inequality, and that means dealing with the fact that life on welfare benefits is not easy. It is a miserable existence which can sap energy and self-confidence, it can lead to exclusion from mainstream society and ordinary pursuits, to alienation and to marginalisation.

Paid work is the answer for many people - but that's not always an option for everyone all the time. Pensioners should not have to take on cleaning jobs to make ends meet, mothers with young children - or indeed fathers - should not have to leave them in day-care, people with disabilities may not be able to stay in employment during different phases of a progressive illness.

Time on benefit should not be a life sentence, but neither should it be a punishment.

Any money the country saves by keeping people on benefits in poverty is spent in extra costs of ill health, crime and social exclusion. Liberal Democrats should be at the forefront of the crusade against poverty because it wastes human potential and breeds alienation.

Our crusade against poverty must not stop at our own shores, it must also embrace the developing world.

A healthy environment is vital to the economic life of the country as well as to the well being of the planet. We need to develop and promote policies which integrate the economic, social and environmental needs of communities.

We need improved protection for wildlife and biodiversity must be enhanced, not threatened with genetically modified crops and intensive agriculture.

We know that sustainability is about much more than recycling - or even cycling. It's about education, investment in sustainable technologies and in our future. We have long put the environment at the centre of our thinking. We must now lead the crusade to put it at the centre of everyone's thinking and at the centre of local and national government policies and actions.

Liberal Democrats must continue to campaign for freedom for local government, for devolution to elected regional governments, for a fair voting system, for the democratisation of quangos and for freedom for individual citizens.

We must actively campaign to bring central government, the police, the NHS and quangos into the searchlight of open government and public scrutiny. Without that, the individual citizen does not have the power to hold public bodies to account.

I am ambitious for the Liberal Democrats. Our party will not compromise on the war against poverty, on the campaign for a better environment or on the battle to restore our civil liberties,

I am proud that we are part of the government of Scotland. Jim Wallace and his team have created an agreement which will be good for Scotland and good for the Liberal Democrats. It is the outcome of elections fought under PR and meets the settled will of the Scottish people.

But balanced Parliaments, coalitions, deals with other parties, are not our objectives as a party. Our objective is to win the hearts and minds of people, to persuade them to vote Liberal Democrat and step by step to form the government - and then to share that power - with the people of this country.

I want to lead a party which has the vision and courage to say what needs saying and the commitment and determination to do what needs doing. I'm not interested in leading an exclusive sect in the wilderness, I want to lead a party of principle into power.