New Year's Message from Charles Kennedy

At this time of year, we need to remember those worse off than ourselves. This Labour government keeps telling us that Britain is getting better; but it's not getting better for everybody. Unfairness divides our society. Inequality is worse than under Margaret Thatcher. We have an unfair tax system which means those on the lowest earnings pay more of their income in tax than the richest. Yet the new economy and the new information society have brought challenges and opportunities which should enable every individual to have the chance to make the best of their lives. These are challenges which I am determined my party will rise to.

Fundamental unfairness in modern Britain isn't just about wealth. It's about life-chances and opportunities. It's about social injustice which splits communities and divides families; and is embedded in the most fundamental aspects of life - housing, social mobility and education.

Let me paint a picture for you. It's Christmas Day. The house is overflowing with people - aunts, cousins, grandparents. As the day wears on, the space seems to contract. It's hot and increasingly claustrophobic. The youngest children get fractious and older family members get irritable trying to keep the peace. It happens in even the closest of families.

Now let me tell you about a real family. In this household, what many of us only experience on Christmas Day, happens every day; the lack of privacy, the frustration which can so easily boil over into anger, the lack of space for study or homework for the older children, are ever-present realities. There are eight of them, crammed into a tiny three bedroom first-floor flat in Brent. The father has worked for twenty years driving for the Royal Mail. One child, a three year old boy, has been diagnosed with autism. His mood swings dramatically; and the whole family is affected by his outbursts. A teenage boy shares a bedroom with a twelve year old girl and a nine year old boy. There is nowhere to close a door and hide. This family can't possibly afford to buy a house in London. They've been waiting for three years for social housing. A campaign by local Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather has made them a higher priority; but despite the fact that 5,000 homes stand empty in Brent, nowhere more suitable can be found.

There are tens of thousands of other families in the country living in overcrowded housing, living out similar tensions throughout the year. Yet there are half a million fewer social homes now than when New Labour came to power in 1997.

This Christmas Day there will also be nearly 130,000 children who do not have a permanent home; either through family breakdown or family homelessness. Such children lack both security and, in some senses, a basic dignity which most of us can take for granted.

Where a child lives, also affects his or her long-term health. Over a million children in this country live in bad housing. If the house is damp, that puts them at risk of asthma and other illnesses. The statistics are chilling. In 21st century Britain, a baby born in Westminster will live, on average, eight years longer than a child born in the Canning Town area of London. While Department of Health figures show infant mortality is twice as high for children of parents in manual work as those in managerial and professional jobs.

The Prime Minister has made it a speciality to trot out statistics about how life in this country is improving. But it hasn't for these families and their children. Labour's short termist policies, far from denting inequality, are actually contributing to a continuing widening of the gap between rich and poor. And what is worse, social mobility has stalled. Those born into poor circumstances are more likely to be trapped under Labour. It is the sad fact that a party once dedicated to the advancement of the underprivileged has presided over an ever-growing divide.

Education is in many ways the key. But again, this government is failing to deliver. Tinkering and targets are now giving way to a new danger - the potential return of the hated 11 plus. When MP's return to Westminster, the debate over the latest education reforms will be heated and deserves to be. David Cameron has already shown his hand by eagerly endorsing selective admissions - which in reality mean schools choosing pupils. The Liberal Democrats again have a distinctive, alternative voice.

When I talk about inequality and unfairness, I am not describing the kind of abject poverty and misery Dickens wrote about in A Christmas Carol. Today's inequalities are quite different in scale, but should be no less acceptable. Unfairness breeds division, division breeds distrust. Public distrust - and New Labour's politics of fear - have already undermined some of the very foundations of the democratic society in which we live. There is widespread public disillusion and discontent with politicians.

David Cameron - the newest kid on the block - is reaping rewards simply for being fresh; but nobody should be under any illusions. David Cameron is a Conservative at heart, not a liberal. But what I do also detect is a shifting of the political tectonic plates; a sense that change is coming. And when this government falls, as one day it must, I believe it is the Liberal Democrats, the genuine bearers of the liberal and democratic flame in our country, who will be most in touch with how the majority want us to respond to such inequalities and unfairness.

The local elections in May will be another opportunity for the Liberal Democrats. We already run big cities like Liverpool, Newcastle, Cambridge and York. This is a chance to widen that experience of government and take it into more communities up and down the country.

A fairer society will be a safer society, a healthier society and a better society. Tackling present divides should be at the heart of our commitment to change - rebuilding modern Britain with a sense of fairness at its heart.

I challenge my party - and I challenge you all - to join me in 2006 as we set about making this vision of Liberal Britain a reality.

Happy New Year

Best wishes,

Charles Kennedy, Leader of the Liberal Democrats