IT is encouraging that Labour activists such as Helena Kennedy are starting to challenge their own party.

However, their suggestions have been Liberal Democrat thinking for years.

Instead of trying to reform it, they should join us in our quest to reform the way this country is governed.

For instance, the Liberal Party adopted co-ownership in industry with workers’ councils, worker share-ownership and voting rights for employees in 1948.

It was the Liberal governments of the early years of the last century that laid the foundations of local government. Labour and Conservative governments over the past 60 years have reduced it to the pitiful state it is today.

We have consistently opposed ID cards. A Liberal in 1952 was instrumental in getting rid of the wartime version of this infringement of civil liberties. We have persistently promoted a tax on land that is better both socially and fiscally than our present council tax. This would provide incentives to use or let go of valuable unused land in our cities and town centres that are presently allowed to fester in the hope of speculative gain.

DR PETER HIRST Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesman for Congleton