Kennedy seeks Iraq war "justice" (BBC News)

First, we need to provide better public transport alternatives wherever possible and, secondly, we need a charging regime for car use - not car ownership - which reflects both congestion and need. In the medium to long-term we should be charging vehicles for when and where they use our roads, taxing the use rather than ownership of cars.

At the same time however, we must also improve our local transport infrastructure as part of the same equation. In our towns and cities buses often provide the most economical and environmentally friendly form of public transport. London has demonstrated what can be done and we need to allow other towns the same regulatory regime in order to provide the same sort of result.

We have only one tax raising measure which will fund three key priorities.

We will scrap student fees, provide free personal care for the elderly, and reduce local taxes.

To pay for these three priorities we will raise the top rate of tax on incomes over £100,000.

Remember that the average household income in Britain is £23,000 a year and that those earning over £100,000 a year represent the wealthiest one percent of taxpayers. (my emphasis)

We publish today the results of a poll conducted by NOP which shows that 75% of electors are in favour of this policy – and only 21% are against.

That seems a pretty fair endorsement to me.

And second, we will spend money differently.

We will redirect £5bn a year of existing Government spending so that we can invest in high priority areas like better pension, lower class sizes and more police.

We will cut specific programmes such as the Child Trust Fund, compulsory Identity Cards, and the final tranche of Eurofighter.

We will scrap unnecessary quangos and central Government departments and functions.

This will be set out in full in our costings document published with our manifesto.

Today we are publishing a headline summary of our plans which shows, by policy area, how much we will spend and how much we will save.

The most unfair tax in Britain is the Council (poll) Tax.

We will scrap it and replace it with a local income tax based on the ability to pay.

(More at The Liberal Democrats website)

Charles Kennedy called on voters to punish the Prime Minister for his decision to invade Iraq, saying it would be a central issue in the general election.

In a damning attack on Tony Blair's decision to launch an "illegal" war, he blamed the Prime Minister for misleading the British people over Iraq and said voters "have no reason to trust his word".

The Liberal Democrat leader added that the Iraq war deserved to be a central issue. "Every Labour candidate should answer for the Government's rush to war", while the Tories deserved to be punished for their "supine support" for the invasion.

The Liberal Democrats, who consistently opposed the war, predicted that Labour would pay on polling day for its support of George Bush. In Labour seats, such as Pendle in Lancashire and Luton South, where the Liberal Democrats came a poor third last time, the party is seeing a surge of support.