URGENT - Conference Motion: Unfinished business

As many of you will know, tomorrow at noon is the deadline for conference motions for autumn Federal conference. I've been a bit behind the game recently, but would like to submit the following motion. If you are a conference rep and feel you can support this (I'll accept friendly amendments too - via the comments if you like) could I ask you to let me have your details (email address, name, membership number and local constituency) as soon as possible. I need nine more before tomorrow - it is being circulated in other forums as well though.

Unfinished business: the Liberal reform agenda post-1909

Conference celebrates:

1. the recent hundredth anniversary of the development of the old age pension
2. the recent sixtieth anniversary of the birth of the National Health Service

which were the inspiration of Liberal thinkers, economists and politicians, even if not always implemented by Liberal governments.

Conference notes that:

1. in the next few months we will be celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Lloyd-George's 1909 "People's Budget"
2. in the century since then the dominant ideological and political battles have been between socialism and corporate welfarism
3. Liberals have throughout promoted distinctive and superior alternatives such as:
   i. shifting the burden of taxation away from economically productive and beneficial processes such as work and trade and onto the unearned advantage gained through monopoly, externalities and the exploitation of finite natural resources, including land
   Ii. the post-war "ownership for all" policies which emphasized that it was through a more equitable distribution amongst workers of the capital assets they help to create that the problems of poverty are most likely to be defeated
4. many of the problems that Asquith, Lloyd-George, Beveridge and others sought to address appear to be as intractable as ever
5. successive Labour and Conservative governments, through their respective socialist and class warfare or corporate welfare and protectionist policies, have signally failed to address the root causes of inequity and deprivation at home or abroad so begun by our Liberal forebears a century ago.

Conference therefore:

1. reaffirms the superiority of the Liberal tradition of political economy in offering uniquely sustainable mechanisms to address the ongoing root causes of poverty and deprivation whilst allowing the maximum freedom for individuals to pursue their ambitions and achieve their fullest potential on a level playing field.
2. calls on Liberal Democrat policy makers to rediscover if necessary and embrace the still very relevant ideas and policies of that Liberal economic tradition and to work towards the completion of the "work in progress" begun by the Asquith's pioneering government a century ago frustrated by the vested interests that continue hold considerable influence today to the detriment of the majority.