Ageing population opportunity not a threat says Euro-MP

6.04.19pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 14th Sep 2004

The Liberal Democrats Pre Manifesto Document unveiled by Charles Kennedy today, is the first time a political party has addressed Britain's ageing population as an opportunity rather than a threat, according to West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne.

The Liberal Democrat MEP was responsible for making sure that discrimination on the grounds of age was kept in the EU Employment Directive, which means from 2006 it will be illegal to discriminate against someone in the workplace on grounds of age.

Speaking today, Liz Lynne said that only the Liberal Democrats will deliver a fair deal for elderly people:

"It is a national scandal that a third of all people between 50 and 65 are out of work. This is a shocking waste of their potential and experience, quite apart from costing the economy an estimated £16billion.

"Many people do not wish to give up work completely when they reach retirement age. The Government could do a lot more to encourage people in their 50s 60s and 70s back in to work or education. We should scrap the rule that no one over 55 can receive a student loan. It is time the Government stopped seeing the so called 'greying' of Britain as a problem but instead as a great opportunity."

Commenting on other aspects of the Pre Manifesto Document, Liz said:

"This is an important document setting out the direction of Liberal Democrat thinking leading up to the General Election. Most of these policies have been tried and tested in places like Birmingham Hodge Hill, Leicester South, Brent East and now hopefully successfully in Hartlepool.

"As someone who has spent all my political life arguing for the rights of disabled people, I am delighted that the party has committed itself to free local transport for people with disabilities as well as elderly people. The document also renews our commitment to free personal care, by implementing the recommendations of the independent Royal Commission on long term care for elderly people, as we have already done in Scotland.

"At the European Elections we increased the Liberal Democrat vote in the West Midlands by 102,000. With this document, I am confident that at the next General Election voters in the region will see that there is only one real alternative to Labour and that is the Liberal Democrats."

ENDS

Notes To Editors

Since Labour have now put up taxes, we don't need to raise taxes for most of our proposals - we have detailed plans to fund them by savings in current budgets. That will involve switching around £5 billion from lower priority programmes and unnecessary bureaucracy to our priorities. Key proposals include:

· Cutting subsidies. We will abolish the DTI; reduce spending by DEFRA; adopt competitive procurement in defence; and abolish many local area initiatives.

· Scrapping the Chancellor's Child Trust Fund and using the money for children's early years education and support. The Child Trust Fund will cost £1.25 billion over a Parliament.

· Not introducing ID cards. Hundreds of millions can be saved by not introducing ID cards. That money would, we believe, be better spent on increasing the number of police on our streets and providing them with the latest technology to make them more efficient.

Three of our key policies are about creating a fairer distribution of the costs of public services:

1. Scrapping tuition and top-up fees for students.

Cost: £1.2 billion.

2. Introducing free personal care for elderly and disabled people.

Cost: up to £1.4 billion.

3. Keeping down the rate of local taxes.

Cost: £1.7bn.

These three items add up to £4.3 billion and we will pay for them by one tax change, introducing a