Government is impotent - Maclennan

Maclennan: The government has to face some home truths

The Labour government is impotent in the face of change, the Liberal Democrats' outgoing president has told the party conference.

Robert Maclennan was speaking to conference at the end of his four-year term as party president. He will be succeeded by Diana Maddock.

Mr Maclennan, who received a standing ovation for his speech, criticised government failure to act in the face of the global economic crisis,

Home truths for Blair

He also reiterated the topic which has so far been central to debate at the Brighton conference by stressing the importance for voting reform.

Mr Maclennan told the conference that nowhere was the government's inability to act more poignant than during the prime minister's visit to his Sedgefield constituency last week.

He said: "The baffled disappointment on the faces of workers of Fujitsu spoke more eloquently than words.

"That moment brought into sharp focus for the whole country some home truths which the prime minister to his credit did not attempt to spin away.

"The first home truth is the government's sense of its own impotence when the world outside intrudes. The second is that when it comes to jobs, crime, disease or ecological disaster the outside world does intrude."

'Name the date'

For all the bustle, new deals and task forces no renewal of Britain was in prospect, delegates heard.

The government had failed to take the initiative on foreign policy, despite its recent tenure of the EU presidency and chairmanship of G7.

The unforeseen circumstances Chancellor Gordon Brown had spoken of had arrived, said Mr Maclennan.

He called for the government to name a date for joining the European single currency and let the people decide.

There had been some positive aspects of the government's first 500 days in office, including the Good Friday Agreement and the national minimum wage.

Unhealthy government

But the pervading national mood was one of growing disappointment, Mr Maclennan told the conference.

The government's policies on pensions, transport and rural affairs had not satisfied higher hopes.

Labour's style of government was politically unhealthy, said Mr Maclennan.

The concentration of power at the centre was self-defeating and was creating a bottleneck weakening the administration of government.

Democracy was being neglected through Labour's centralised grip on power and first past the post institutionalism, he said.

Electoral reform was central to good government, said Mr Maclennan.

"Plural government is strong government," he said.

A referendum should decide on preportional representation and liberal democracy would be the creed for the new Millennium.