GREEN BOOST FOR LIB DEMS AT CONFERENCE

5.08.41pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 18th Sep 2007

LIBERAL Democrats from North East Fife have welcomed the results of an audit of policies of the three main political parties that shows Menzies Campbell's party as the best for the environment.

The audit was carried out by a group of major environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and WWF-UK.

It awarded the parties "green lights" according to how green their policies were. The Conservatives scored zero, Labour one and the Liberal Democrats three.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Brighton, Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Fife, Iain Smith, said the verdict of the green groups was a great boost for the party.

"This audit has confirmed what we have been saying in North East Fife for many years," said Iain Smith MSP. "Liberal Democrats are leading the battle of ideas for protecting the environment and cutting the pollution people cause.

"At our conference this week we have debated plans that will put us even further ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. These include plans to shift more people from domestic flights to a greatly improved high speed rail system."

On Monday the conference backed proposals to make Britain carbon neutral by 2050.The plans include commitments to:

· Hugely increase investment in the railways, paid for by introducing motorway tolls for lorries

· Carbon neutral, non-nuclear power generation by 2050

· The phasing out of petrol cars by 2040

· Increased use of green taxes to help cut pollution, using the money to cut income tax

· Introducing 'green mortgages' to enable people to make their homes more energy efficient."

"On Tuesday the conference also approved the plans for cutting income tax by 4p in the pound to 16p, paid for by shifting more of the tax burden onto pollution", concluded Iain Smith MSP

Ends

Notes to Editors:

1- The Liberal Democrats have been identified as the greenest of the three main political parties in an audit by Britain's environmental groups published on 12th September. The groups include Friends of the Earth, Green Alliance, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the Woodland Trust, WWF-UK and Camaron. The Conservatives came out the worst in the audit leading the green organisations to comment there was a "stark" gap between the party's aspirations and its limited policy commitments. Labour scored one "green light" whilst the Liberal Democrats scored three.

2- The audit comes on the eve of the Liberal Democrats' conference at which the main theme is the environment. The key debate on the environment was on Monday 17th, 9.55am-11.25am Zero Carbon Britain (Climate Change paper). On Tuesday 18th, 9.40am-11.10am, Reducing the Burden (Tax reform paper) was debated which contains proposals to shift more of the tax burden from income to pollution.

3- Biography: Iain Smith has been the MSP for North East Fife since 1999, an area where he was born and raised. Before becoming an MSP, Iain was a Councillor and Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Fife Council. He now lives in Ladybank in the constituency. Iain is Scottish Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, a member of the Scottish Parliament's European and External Affairs Committee and a Member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Body. He is also Convener of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Group in the Scottish Parliament.