Tag Archives: federal policy committee

Stephen Tall

David Laws to chair 2015 Manifesto Working Group

By Stephen Tall | Tue 8th January 2013 - 7:15 pm

It’s now official: Lib Dem schools minister David Laws will chair the party’s Manifesto Working Group. Lib Dem MP Duncan Hames, who chairs the party’s Federal Policy Committee, has just emailed members with the following message:

Last night at the party’s Federal Policy Committee we agreed Nick Clegg’s nomination of David Laws MP to Chair the Manifesto Working Group for the next General Election. Alongside David, we also appointed two Vice-Chairs – Sharon Bowles MEP and Duncan Brack – and nine further members of the group.

The Manifesto Working Group reports to the Federal Policy Committee, which has responsibility for preparing the

…

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Chris Richards

Opinion: Halfway to 2015 – three bits of advice for new Lib Dem Federal Party Committees

By Chris Richards | Mon 7th January 2013 - 5:23 pm

The beginning of 2013 not only marks the start of the second half of the Coalition, but also the start of the newly elected Federal Committees. Here is some advice for the three crucial ones, Federal Policy Committee (FPC), Federal Conference Committee (FCC) and Federal Executive (FE).

For FPC: Radical policy is required for 2015
Common sense says the 2015 manifesto should play it safe, yet common sense is often wrong.

A study of policy positions in party manifestos since 1971 in Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK shows: Parties in Government who adopt relatively extreme ideological positions do …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Helen Duffett

Federal Committee Election results 2012

By Helen Duffett | Sat 10th November 2012 - 9:43 am

Postal ballot paper being postedLiberal Democrat Federal Conference reps have voted for members of party committees for 2013-2014; the results are as follows:

Federal Executive committee
Places: 15
Candidates elected:

Qassim Afzal
Elaine Bagshaw

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , and | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems’ internal elections: your guide to where we’re at (UPDATED)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th October 2012 - 4:50 pm

Every couple of years the Lib Dems hold internal elections in which conference representatives choose members of key party committees. As one of the seemingly few Lib Dems neither standing for election nor with a vote, I thought our readers might like an update on where we’re at…

Federal Executive

What does it do?
The formal answer: ‘The Federal Executive is an elected committee responsible for directing, co-ordinating and implementing the work of the Federal Party.’ (From the party website.)
The informal answer: What does the Federal Executive do? by Alison Goldsworthy
Who’s standing?
There are 36 candidates (26 men, 10 women) competing for …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters and Party Presidency | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 4 Comments
Jeremy Hargreaves

Opinion: Creating a fairer tax system

By Jeremy Hargreaves | Thu 20th September 2012 - 2:55 pm

As Benjamin Franklin wrote back in the eighteenth century, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. So while tax policy may not set hearts racing, anything that takes money from people’s pockets will provoke a strong response.

Already, in government, we’ve had major successes. Our flagship tax policy of a £10,000 tax-free allowance is being implemented, which will provide millions of taxpayers with an tax cut of £705 per annum by the end of this Parliament; we’ve raised capital gains tax for higher rate taxpayers; and we are clawing back £7bn worth …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | 13 Comments
Dinti Batstone

Why stand for Federal Policy Committee?

By Dinti Batstone | Tue 18th September 2012 - 5:02 pm

Here is the third article about the work of party committees, written by current members. Each provides insight into how a specific committee functions. We hope these articles will encourage party members to consider putting themselves forward for election.

Why did more people put themselves forward for election to the Federal Policy Committee than any other federal committee in 2010? Because with Liberal Democrats now in Government our policies matter more than ever before – as this new booklet  makes clear.

So what exactly does the Federal Policy Committee do? While the party Constitution enshrines Conference as the Liberal Democrats’ sovereign policy-making …

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Posted in News | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

First of the new style Federal Policy Committee reports published

By Mark Pack | Sat 28th April 2012 - 11:25 am

Following the series of questions from me to the party’s federal committees at the party’s Spring conference, all the major committees promised to provide written reports in future after each of their full committee meetings.

The first such Federal Executive report has been posted up in the members-only forum on this site (see the Party Organisation section), but the Federal Policy Committee has instead gone for publishing its first report via the main party website (see the foot of this page), which I have reproduced below.

Although the report is fairly minimalist, it does provide the key information about which policy groups are likely to be reporting when. That is important information for anyone wanting to influence the party’s policy decisions as working with the grain of the administrative calendar where possible makes things easier and more likely to be successful than ignoring it.

Federal Policy Committee Meeting 21 March 2012

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 1 Comment
NewsHound

Federal Policy Committee welcomes careful thinkers

By NewsHound | Tue 27th March 2012 - 9:53 am

It is almost certainly a complete coincidence but, having published some thoughts on how the Party might develop policy in future, news reaches us that Federal Policy Committee are looking for volunteers (Party members only, I’m afraid) to form Policy Working Groups on the following subjects;

    Transition to a Zero Carbon Britain
    A Balanced Working Life (focussing on low-to-middle earners)
    Defence
    Taxation
    Skills and Post-16 Education
    Political and Constitutional Reform
    Europe

One might almost suspect that work on the 2015 Manifesto has begun…

For an application form for these working groups, please contact the Party’s Policy Unit on 020 7340 4989, or e-mail lucymcdonaldlibdemsorguk.

The deadline for applications is …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | 6 Comments
Mark Valladares

Keeping Party policy fresh, relevant… and ours

By Mark Valladares | Fri 23rd March 2012 - 5:52 pm

Yesterday, I outlined some of the issues that impact on how we make policy as Liberal Democrats, and some very interesting comments came from that, for which I am grateful. Today, here are some thoughts of my own, which build on those comments and on my own thinking…

Whilst Federal Policy Committee has been attempting to reconcile the variety of tasks to be addressed, the Party has seen the emergence of a number of ginger groups. Added to the long-established, but increasingly dormant, Liberal Vision, which appears not to have developed much beyond being a small group of libertarians with …

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Posted in News, Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | 5 Comments
Mark Valladares

Changing the way Liberal Democrats develop policy – some thoughts from the country

By Mark Valladares | Thu 22nd March 2012 - 12:58 pm

Nearly two years into the Coalition, and with the Health and Social Care Bill now on its way to Buckingham Palace for Royal Assent, now seems a good time to reflect on the future of ideas within the Party.

There will be those who will wonder why a self-confessed bureaucrat, not known for a yen for policy wonkery, would be worrying about such things. And I guess that they would have a point. But from a process perspective, I suggest that the way that we make policy is now flawed.

At the moment, the hub through which virtually all policy passes is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 28 Comments
Mark Pack

Two useful steps forward in party business at conference

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 10:05 am

Despite a resurgence in recent years, the tabling of questions to party committee reports at Liberal Democrat conference is still very much a minority sport. So much so that 100% of questions to the Federal Policy Committee came from a certain North London Doctor with an penchant for chocolate…

The questions do however provide a good opportunity to ferret out information or push for a decision where you know the door is half-open. In my case this morning at Gateshead that resulted in questions to both the Federal Conference Committee and the Federal Policy Committee asking them to start publishing reports …

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Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Linda Jack

Opinion: What price democracy in the Lib Dems?

By Linda Jack | Thu 2nd February 2012 - 6:02 pm

Over the past 21 months I have had many moments when I have felt close to despair about the behaviour of our parliamentarians. Sometimes, like voting in favour of tuition fees, they can rightly point to the Coalition Agreement – endorsed overwhelmingly – as Nick Clegg observed at the time – by a North Korean like Special Conference. Other times, like voting against party policy on Legal Aid and Welfare Reform – there is no such defence. Last night calls into question the fundamental values and principles of our party, not just in terms of flying in the face of …

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Mark Pack

Should the way members of federal committees vote be public?

By Mark Pack | Mon 31st October 2011 - 12:57 pm

At the end of my post on the Federal Executive’s decision that the Liberal Democrats should (mostly) not fight police commissioner elections, a decision at odds with the views of party members we surveyed, I made reference to the fact that the details of such votes are not published and usually remain confidential. Sometimes news of who voted which way seeps out but, for example, you’re not officially meant to know that three members of the FE voted against that decision or who the three were.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
David Boyle

Opinion: It’s all my fault!

By David Boyle | Thu 12th May 2011 - 1:33 pm

For the past half century, the party has been growing steadily in influence and numbers. There have been electoral set-backs (1970, 1989, and now 2011). The question is: is this our nadir?

And what will decide if this is really the low point, or if we are doomed to carry on sinking in the esteem of the public?

Most commentators have talked this question in terms of short term issues, like how the party manages to play the coalition. But actually there is something far more fundamental that requires attention.

It is whether we can …

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Posted in Op-eds | 46 Comments
Mark Valladares

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 3)

By Mark Valladares | Thu 3rd March 2011 - 2:43 pm

In the first two parts of this mini-series, I looked at how policy is made, and how its creation is managed. Today, I want to look at its failings, the implications of those failings, and how future policy making might be shaped.

As a party of perpetual opposition, our inclusive but often ponderous policy-making regime allowed members to influence core policy, in the knowledge that it would be a means of attacking the Government, but was unlikely to be applied. Occasionally, that led to somewhat populist ideas being espoused but, if a Government did something in a field where our policy was obsolete, or overtaken by events, our spokespeople had a set of principles to fall back on.

Such an arrangement worked, for the most part, especially in small Parliamentary Parties. However, its weaknesses became more apparent as Labour’s mania for legislation produced a plethora of technical changes in need of detailed scrutiny.

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Mark Pack

New Lib Dem councillor representatives elected for party committees

By Mark Pack | Thu 20th January 2011 - 12:50 pm

Via the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC) comes the news:

Elections have taken place to elect the principal councillor representative on two Federal Party Committees for 2011-2012:

On the Federal Executive Committee the following have been elected:

Cllr Stan Collins (South Lakeland DC and Cumbria CC)
Cllr Keith House (Eastleigh BC and Hampshire CC)

On the Federal Policy Committee the following have been elected:

Cllr Louise Bloom (Eastleigh BC)
Cllr Stan Collins (South Lakeland DC and Cumbria CC)
Cllr Chris White (St Albans CC and Hertfordshire CC)

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Mark Pack

Federal Policy Committee elects its three Vice-Chairs

By Mark Pack | Thu 18th November 2010 - 8:44 pm

Last night Cambridge MP Julian Huppert, former Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris and Jeremy Hargreaves were elected to be the Federal Policy Committee’s three Vice-Chairs. Evan and Jeremy have long been high-profile figures in the party’s policy-making process and Julian has rapidly joined their ranks as his profile in the party has risen over the last couple of years.

So what is notable about the trio is not any of their presence in it, but that Danny Alexander, former FPC Vice-Chair and in charge of the 2010 manifesto team but now a Cabinet Minister, is no-longer one of the …

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Helen Duffett

More results: party committees and interim peers panel

By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th November 2010 - 1:20 pm

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference representatives have voted for members of party committees for 2011-2012 and members of the panel from which future Liberal Democrat nominees for the House of Lords will be drawn.

The results are as follows:

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , , and | 6 Comments
Iain Roberts

Our ministers can’t always follow party policy

By Iain Roberts | Mon 18th October 2010 - 8:10 am

The issue of tuition fees has raised a more general challenge the party needs to get its head round. This one’s been bubbling away quietly since the Lib Dems entered the Coalition and we seem no closer to an answer now than we were then.

Are our Government ministers bound by party policy?

When one of our ministers is formulating what the UK Government should do on a specific issue, or setting out the Lib Dem bargaining position to get the best final deal, how far should that minister be reaching for a party policy document rather than using their own …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 38 Comments
Helen Duffett

Federal Policy Committee confirms party’s tuition fee pledge

By Helen Duffett | Wed 13th October 2010 - 11:42 pm

From the Liberal Democrats website:

Tonight, Wednesday October 13, the Federal Policy Committee of the Liberal Democrats held their regular meeting.

During the meeting they held a special session to discuss the latest announcements following the Browne Review.

In a statement following the meeting, the committee spokesperson said: “FPC confirms the Liberal Democrat party policy remains to phase out tuition fees.

“We are now in a coalition government and we will continue during the period of discussion and consultation to work with our coalition partners towards achieving a policy that meets our key concerns and is progressive.”

Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

How does the party’s policy-making work during coalition?

By Mark Pack | Sat 14th August 2010 - 3:20 pm

Here’s what the report to conference from the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) says on the matter:

The FPC has had a number of discussions on the implications for its role and the Party’s policy-making of our new status as a party of government. The FPC is very clear that the Party’s complete independence in policy-making shall continue. The Committee will be developing new ways of working both to ensure the maximum Liberal Democrat policy input into the Coalition Government, and also to continue to ensure a separate Liberal Democrat policy identity. In particular the FPC will developing a close working

…

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

Julian Huppert elected to Federal Policy Committee

By Mark Pack | Wed 30th June 2010 - 9:20 am

Julian Huppert, David Howarth’s successor as MP for Cambridge, has been elected to the party’s Federal Policy Committee (FPC). Julian is rather in the Evan Harris mode in that he’s very interested in (and knowledgeable about) scientific issues, keen to see evidence properly scrutinised, likely to be an active participant in the FPC’s work and, in as much as the labels make sense, rather more of a social liberal than an economic one.

You can follow Julian on Twitter at @julianhuppert.

Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Linda Jack

“Ignore us at your peril!” – Linda Jack reports back on the Lib Dems’ first post-coalition Federal Policy Committee

By Linda Jack | Tue 15th June 2010 - 10:20 am

The Lib Dems’ Federal Policy Committee (FPC) operates under the Chatham House Rule: you can repeat what was said, but not who said it. But often what happens at FPC goes completely unreported.

In some cases this is understandable, people throwing their toys out of the pram isn’t something we really want to report (oh not that often, honest!), and sometimes it is just because we are discussing issues (such as the manifesto) that we quite rightly want to keep under wraps until it is launched.

But someone (who of course will remain nameless) made the point at last week’s …

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | 26 Comments
Baroness Ros Scott

Ros Scott writes … Party President’s report to members, January ’10

By Baroness Ros Scott | Tue 2nd February 2010 - 8:15 pm

In the two months since my last report, the election campaign has started in all but name.

After a phenomenal amount of work by the manifesto team – led by Danny Alexander, the party’s policy unit headed by Christian Moon, and the Federal Policy Committee – we have now established the broad outlines of our campaign:

  • Reform of the tax system to create a fairer base,
  • introducing the pupil premium to give all children a fairer start in life,
  • creating sustainable housing and jobs and
  • political reform to bring in a fairer voting system, and

…

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Mark Pack

General election manifesto update

By Mark Pack | Thu 21st January 2010 - 12:20 pm

In the three months since I last blogged at length about the Liberal Democrat general election manifesto process, Danny Alexander (chair of the Manifesto Working Group) has won widespread praise for restoring a sense of peace, sense and order after the events around the party’s autumn conference.

On the two major flash points – mansion tax and tuition fees – hostilities have ceased and proposals been modified to win widespread support within the party. Tuition fees are still due to be scrapped, but over a longer timescale, and mansions are still due to be taxed, but with a narrower definition …

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Posted in General Election and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Guardian’s approving verdict on the Lib Dems’ manifesto principles is correct … but for the wrong reasons

By Stephen Tall | Tue 12th January 2010 - 10:10 am

Nick Clegg will have enjoyed reading this morning’s Guardian editorial (Nick Clegg: Liberal parenting) over his breakfast porridge today. The paper commends Nick for yesterday’s launch of the principles which will underpin the Lib Dems’ election manifesto.

At the same time it betrays the Guardian’s usual unawareness of the party’s democratic decision-making principles. According to the Grauniad, Nick “ordered his party to drop some of its favourite policies”, issuing “instructions” in order to transform the Lib Dem manifesto from “a third-party wishlist” into “a credible agenda for directing a government”.

Hmmm, not so much.

In fact, all that …

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Baroness Ros Scott

Ros Scott writes… Party President’s report to members, November ‘09

By Baroness Ros Scott | Tue 15th December 2009 - 10:30 am

The two months since the party’s last Federal Executive have, as usual, been pretty busy. In that period I have visited local parties in Aldershot, Altrincham & Sale, Winchester, Islington, Sutton, Wycombe, Amersham & Chesham, Swindon, Gloucester, Stroud, Cheltenham, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow North, Edinburgh Pentlands, North & Leith, West, Ochil, and Consett. I have also attended the North West and West Midlands Regional Conferences.

The two meetings of the party’s Chief Officers Group which I have attended are reported separately to FE, but I wish to highlight the work done to develop the business plan and budget which were …

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Baroness Ros Scott

Ros Scott writes… Party President’s report to members, October ‘09

By Baroness Ros Scott | Wed 4th November 2009 - 5:15 pm

October was a month which began for me in India and ended in Cairo. I had been invited to India by the Indian High Commission along with a small delegation of Parliamentarians who are “Liberal Democrat Friends of India”. We were led by Lord John Alderdice through a week’s visit which was split between Delhi and Pune and included a number of meeting and visits to reflect India today, politically, socially and economically.

I was in Cairo for three days to attend the Congress of Liberal International, which is held every 18 months. The Lib Dem delegation is led by the Party President, but all the work is done by the Chair of the International Relations Committee, who is Robert Woodthorpe Brown. It’s a pretty humbling experience to hear from campaigners who risk their life and liberty for working to make democratic change in oppressive regimes, and certainly puts domestic politics into perspective.

In between the two, Parliament resumed after the summer recess, and I’ve been busy in the Lords with voting, select committee work and a few speeches. The expenses issue continues to rumble.

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Mark Pack

The inside story of how the Lib Dem general election manifesto will be drawn up

By Mark Pack | Tue 20th October 2009 - 12:20 pm

The debates and disputes around the Liberal Democrats’ Bournemouth conference give a taste of what is likely to be a tricky process of drawing up the party’s manifesto for the next general election.

Formally, there is a three part process to that manifesto: the manifesto working group chaired by Danny Alexander will present work to the Shadow Cabinet which will then in turn (quite possibly amended) go to the Federal Policy Committee (FPC).

How will this process work and who will the key people be in drawing up the manifesto?

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Issan Ghazni

Policy development – mainstreaming equalities!

By Issan Ghazni | Sat 19th September 2009 - 8:30 am

If you have been reading your papers for conference, you might have noticed something new. Tucked away at the back of the policy papers is a page headed ‘Policy Equality Impact Assessment’. If you work in the public sector, you may already be familiar with these, as they have been compulsory in schools, hospitals and other public institutions for some time now. As a political party, we are not expected to complete such assessments as a matter of course, but have started to introduce them as a sign of our own commitment to the principles of diversity, equality …

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