Well, that was an “interesting year” for us.  With Marshalswick South Ward we’ve had one of us get made unemployed while as a team we’ve been fighting for you on a wide number of issues.  It’s not been an easy time for most, and especially it would seem if you are a Liberal Democrat.

But this year we did manage to do some amazing things nationally.  Things we have wanted to do for years but never had the power to actually get done.
For one, we put an end to the horrific practice of locking up innocent kids behind bars for months on end in immigration removal centres.

But that was just one of many ways Liberal Democrats in the Coalition put our principles into practice this year.

• We took nearly a million of the poorest workers out of paying tax altogether and gave a £200 tax cut not to the rich but to 23m working people.
• We gave children extra support to stop them falling behind in school.
• We gave pensioners the first meaningful rise in the state pension since Thatcher abolished the earnings link.
• Nick Clegg stood up to defend human rights after the riots and for Europe against the Tory right-wingers.
• We stood up for the NHS and forced real change.

Would all of that have happened if we let the Tories run the country on their own? I hardly need to answer that.
And it didn’t happen for the decade or so Labour were in power.

So we are making a difference.  We are fighting for things that you believe in.

That’s the best Christmas present we could give.