Simon Hughes Supports Quality of Life Policy Paper at Liberal Democrat Party Conference
September 20, 2011 6:00 PM
Simon Hughes today spoke in support of the Quality of Life Policy Paper during a debate at Liberal Democrat party conference.
The full text of his speech can be found below:
"One of the most important liberal, radical documents of western civilization, the Declaration of Independence begins like this
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libertyand the pursuit of Happiness.
Over the last three hundred years liberal democracies have been very good at the life and liberty part, but have not focused nearly as much on the pursuit of happiness.
Since World War Two all governments have associated quality of life with quantity of goods and focused on production as one of their central aims.
But as living standards have increased across the western world, so too has inequality - alcoholism, crime and rates of depression.
We are living in a society where we have consumed more and more, but levels of happiness have not followed.
So I welcome the work of our policy committee in putting this subject on the agenda.
I want to highlight two particular parts of this motion.
First, proposal 8 (lines 59/60) gives proper importance to activities outside work.
Sport is physically and mentally, the arts - music, dance and theatre - engage the mind and sprit and often broaden the horizons of the world we live in. Volunteering gives the direct satisfaction of helping others.
Second, lines 61-79 commend changes working arrangements to improve quality of life. This is welcome.
Conference a new attitude to work could make the biggest change.
Work is fundamental to our wellbeing it gives us purpose and through it we contribute to our wider society.
There are many people who have no work at all or have too little work - and many people who work too much.
Overwork has hugely damaging consequences for families, relationships and the quality of personal and community life.
Lack of work is one of the biggest causes of poverty and poor physical and mental health.
If we really want to make a difference to quality of life in our country we need also to tackle inequality of wealth by tackling inequality of work.
In theUKwe have one of the most unequal distributions of work in the developed world.
Almost four out of every ten men and nearly one out of every eight women work more than 45 hours a week - more than twice as many as our western European neighbors.
This is a particular problem in the financial sector and at the top of large businesses, where many people work extremely long hours accumulating huge amounts of money which they barely have the time to spend.
At the same time we also have one of the highest rates of people who work less than 20 hours a week.
Fifteen years ago the OECD made clear that the redistribution of work is one of the most effective ways of combating poverty.
Large corporations in theUKhave a particular role to play in redistributing their profits to create work.
If FTSE 100 executives stopped paying themselves literally hundreds of millions of pounds for failure, and gave themselves only reasonable pay packages, they could use the cash saved to take on more employees or give the money to organizations employing people who could provide all manner of services to the community.
It is simply not justifiable or sane for so many to be so overworked when even more young and the not so young are standing by with no productive work to do.
In every region and country of theUKthere is a clear need, now and in the future for the redistribution of wealth.
Liberal Democrats should add to our political objectives the redistribution of work.
If we commit ourselves in government to distribute work more fairly we will distribute wealth more fairly too.
And if we distribute work and wealth more fairly then we will also spread far wider ambition, hope and happiness. As a party of government, the time to start is now."
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