Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg contacted Ian earlier today to inform him of an important new campaign……….. 

Dear Ian,

I wanted to alert you to an important campaign I’m launching this week. You can find the details www.NickClegg.com/InTheKnow

As Liberal Democrats, we’re firmly committed to new public spending in important areas – such as delivering our green new deal on jobs and housing, lowering infant class sizes and cutting student debt. These are all central to our vision of a better, more liberal Britain.

But if we want to get the most we possibly can from our public services and direct money where it is needed most, we must do more. Our national budget is going to be tight for years, if not decades. So we need to cut out all wasteful spending in order to protect vital frontline services.

Hardworking nurses and teachers tell me how frustrated they are by the money which is still wasted on needless paperwork, administration and computer systems that don’t work.

David Cameron and Gordon Brown are having a sterile debate about the size of the total Whitehall budget. But they’re asking the wrong question: we first need to find out if money is being spent on the right things.

Instead of politicians in Westminster lecturing about how this can be done, I want to ask the people who know most about how public services are run: public servants. The people who are best placed to tell us where money isn’t well spent are the teachers, nurses, social workers and other public servants who work so hard, day and night, to serve people.

We are ‘Asking the People in the Know.’

So if you work in the public sector – or have family, friends or colleagues who do – then please visit, and encourage them to visit, our new website to give us your ideas – so we can make sure that every penny of our money is well spent.

Best wishes,