The Liberal Democrat - Local Government Conference which is hosted jointly by the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and the Local Government Association Liberal Democrats tookplace yesterday; the conference “Local Solutions” was held in Sheffield and was attended by many Liberal Democrat Councillors from all over the UK.

  The key note speech in the morning was delivered by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg he said: “That in this year’s local elections the Liberal Democrats had performed extremely well; the 28% share of the vote was 5% ahead of Labour – and significantly come at a difficult time – in the midst of the damaging row on MP’s expenses. In the future we will be able to look back on these results because events are starting to change; we are at a turning point – Labour has lost its way!

“Labour has lost its soul, when they came to power; they invaded Iraq – that was a massive mistake. After all the promises of change, uplifting, and hope – everyone was pleased to see the back of the Tories in 1997. But who would have thought we would be seeing the demise of the bastion of the Labour Party; they are the same old Tories – which they replaced in 1997.

“The roots that formed the Labour Party in 1906 have changed. Class divide has disappeared and working class voters are no longer voting Labour neither are the rich voting for the Tories – politics has changed for good and the Liberal Democrats can and will capitalise on this situation”.

Speaking about the new localism agenda, and devolution of power in the City of Sheffield, Nick Clegg said: “You have got to give people the power that affects their everyday lives so that they can make the decisions themselves”.

Nick Clegg also spoke about Westminster Reform, he said: “There is something really rotten in Westminster, and it’s not just MP’s expenses – it’s the way political parties are funded, the House of Lords is unelected and the electoral system itself.

“The Labour Party and Tories have hoarded power for too long. Ask yourself, would it have been any different if the Tories had been in power with the bankers or with MPs expenses – I think not, it would have probably been worse.

“Labour has already relinquished the divine right to govern”.