Liberal Democrats Party Conference: Tim Farron speech

Liberal Democrats Party Conference: Tim Farron speech; Farron speech SOT And who needs focus groups when you can stand in Kendal market and find out exactly what people think.. even if you don't ask them. The exploitation of dairy farmers by the supermarkets, brought to life by the young farmer who tells me of her 365 day a year job where she must sell milk for 5 pence a litre less than it costs her farm to produce it. The family terrified because their daughter's mental health condition is worsening while an appointment with a professional is still weeks away. The 75 year old couple who've decided together to stop his cancer treatment because they can't bear the 100 mile round trip, day after day, week after week to get to the nearest radiotherapy centre. All too often the people of Westminster live in their own little Westminster echo chamber. They're not bad people, but they see the world only through Westminster eyes. My approach - our approach - has always been, and will always be, different. It is to be immersed in our communities, to be part of them, so that we can speak for them. To fight with all our energy, to never go native, never be part of the furniture, never lose touch with reality. It is often said that the other parties have vested interests, but that we have none. Not true. We have vested interests too. They are the people in our streets, our towns, our villages. The people in Britain who have no one to speak for them. Our job is to speak up for those people. To defend their homes and their hospitals, their schools and their post offices, and to be their voice. Some of the poorest people I know run their own businesses. They employ half a dozen people, whose families they know by name and to whom they are massively loyal, so loyal that in hard times they will keep those workers on and pay themselves nothing. Liberals must be on the side of business - ambitious for business - tearing d...