100 Days On: A Message From Nick Clegg

It's been 100 days since I was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats - and I wanted to update you on the progress we've been making. It's a huge privilege to be your leader at such an exciting time.

There was a great buzz at our recent conference in Liverpool. And party members from every part of Britain have been telling me how pleased they are that we are stepping up the fight against the two establishment parties. Our determination to open up politics, and give control over health, education, and the environment back to the British people, is really resonating.

Our top team is more than a match for the other two parties. We've got Vince Cable on economics, Chris Huhne on home affairs, Susan Kramer on families, Ed Davey on foreign affairs, David Laws on public services, Steve Webb on the environment and Julia Goldsworthy leading the fight against the faceless government bureaucracies that let us all down.

We are making the running on the issues that matter to people in their everyday lives - from home repossessions, to energy prices and the unfair Council Tax. And we are the only party that's been standing firm on important issues of principle like fighting for citizenship for retired Gurkhas, opposing identity cards and putting the case for an 80% carbon reduction target.

And in five weeks we have a huge opportunity to show the progress we're making. I've been out campaigning hard with Brian Paddick, our outstanding candidate for London, and his excellent team. We have a real chance of delivering a Liberal Democrat Mayor for our great liberal capital city.

At the same time we have important local elections across many parts of England and all of Wales and I've been working closely on these with Director of Campaigns Hilary Stephenson, chair of the local elections campaign Andrew Stunell and Cllr Tim Pickstone from ALDC.

I'm so proud of our record in local government. Time and again, we've turned round towns and cities that have been failed by the other parties. And, with your help, on May 1st we will once again challenge both Labour and Tories in their heartlands.

As I said in my conference speech in Liverpool: the chance is there, so let's seize it.