David Laws: the liberal values we need to reclaim

From a speech by the Liberal Democrat economics spokesman to the 'Independent' fringe meeting at the party's conference in Brighton

Economic liberalism is in the very roots of our party - in the great 19th- and 20th-century battles for free trade and for breaking up the monopolies. Yet sometimes you would think that these great principles - free trade, competition, the power of markets, the benefits of choice - were anathema to some Liberal Democrats.

We should, in my view, reclaim these liberal values and principles - but use them for our ends - fighting poverty, inequality of opportunity and third-rate state monopoly provision. If you don't believe me, think about what the dismantling of Western trade barriers and agricultural subsidies would mean for so many poor countries in the developing world.

Look at the huge growth in prosperity enabled by the market economy, and compare that with the failure of socialism. Of course, money matters hugely in delivering better services - look how much money is spent on private education and private health. But please don't tell me that choice is irrelevant when, as a constituency MP, I see those at the bottom of the income pile wait for months, often years, to receive the NHS treatment they need. Would a system with a greater element of choice and competition really allow people to wait, often in pain and discomfort, for up to two years before treatment?

Of course, there is a huge amount achieved by our NHS, our schools system and our police. But I believe that more can still be achieved, most particularly for those least able to opt out of state provision, by widening choice and competition in our public services, and marrying social liberalism with economic liberalism.

We ought to be thinking about how we can make choice, competition and accountability work for all of our society, not just a privileged minority. Because the Tories are foolishly once again parading policies that do little more than offer the affluent minority an escape route from collectivism, we should not assume that choice can only ever work for the wealthy.