Lib Dem 'principle over fashion'

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Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has called for politics to focus on "principle over fashion".

He said "open-necked shirt photo ops with headlines attached" were not the way to deal with issues such as the environment and nuclear power.

His party's long-standing record on issues which were now "fashionable" showed it had "maturity and judgement" and was the real opposition.

He was campaigning ahead of English local elections on 3 May.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Sir Menzies criticised Labour and the Conservatives for being too similar.

What we need is real, tough decision-making about how we are going to deal with the problem of climate change Sir Menzies CampbellLiberal Democrat leader

"What we need is the dominance of principle over fashion.

"We've got two parties - two conservative parties - who agreed about Iraq, agree about civil nuclear power, agree about the replacement of Trident.

"What we need is a party of opposition. We are the party of opposition in these local government elections both in the north of England and the south of England too."

There will be about 10,500 council seats contested across 312 local authorities in England.

Sir Menzies said the environment was an example of an issue that had become "fashionable" with other parties pushing it up the political agenda, but the Lib Dems had been talking about it "for a long time".

Instead of photo opportunities, he said, "what we need is real, tough decision-making about how we are going to deal with the problem of climate change".

He also said the Lib Dems had once been "derided" for championing gay rights, but had been shown to be right.

"It think on these issues people are concerned about maturity and judgement.

"On the issue of Iraq, the maturity and judgement of the Liberal Democrats has been proved to be right," Sir Menzies said.

"If you remember, it wasn't very fashionable, because public opinion was in favour of military action against Iraq. We took the view, looking at our values and looking at the possible consequences of those actions that we should oppose it. And we have been proved right."