00:00The Liberal Democrats are going to lead the debate in Britain to have a closer relationship
00:03with our European colleagues. It's good for our trade, our economy, it's good for our
00:07defence and our security. And a customs union, which I've called for, the Liberal Democrats
00:12are championing, would be great for growth, far better than anything the government has
00:16announced to date. We all need to get rid of those trade barriers that the Conservatives
00:20put up that have so hit our small and medium-sized businesses, our exporters. That's the way
00:25to grow our economy, by having that closer relationship with Europe.
00:28The Tories made a complete hash of it, soured our relationship with our European friends
00:32and Labour's, frankly, being very timid. We need to be more bold and ambitious. We need
00:36to get rid of the red tape, get rid of the barriers that businesses face. When you're
00:41trying to manufacture a good these days, it often crosses borders several times and I'm
00:45afraid the red tape is getting in the way. And that means we're poorer as a country,
00:50people's wages are lower, prices are higher. So if we want to grow our economy and have
00:54higher living standards, we've got to re-embrace closer trading relationships with our European
00:58neighbours.
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