With Spring Conference just days away, Federal Conference Committee met on Saturday for the almost-final selection of amendments and Emergency and Europe motions. You can see the full text of what we selected in Conference Extra.
Unfortunately, time is always the biggest factor when selecting amendments, and we simply can’t select all those that come to us. The list of unsuccessful amendments is below, along with those we will be debating. For those less familiar, there are two things that can happen with a successful amendment: They can be accepted for debate and vote, or if they are uncontroversial they can be drafted in (e.g. to bring a motion up to date based on revent events) and do not require a vote. The summaries are not those of the submittors, so only give a brief taste of the kind of thing the amendment addresses.
Several of the Supporter’s Scheme amendments related to areas that will be voted on separately in blocks. A full explanation of how the vote will be condicted is in Conference Extra as there are a number of alternative outcomes.
Due to the rapidly developing situation over Brexit, we have delayed the amendments deadline for this item to midday on Friday. This does not allow much time for people to draft and submit amendments in response to events on Thursday, so if you suspect you will be submitting we suggest you try to get the necessary ten or more members ready to sign ahead of time.
Finally, don’t forget that you can now submit your Speaker’s Cards electronically before you even get to conference! Just head on over here.
| Title/Description | Submitted by | Result |
| F4 Eradicating Race Inequlity 75 minutes |
||
| Insert “innovative and imaginative ways” in line 49 | Local Party | Drafting amendment |
| Change “poorly” to “underrepresented” in line 20 | Local Party | Drafting amendment |
| F6 Europe (Motion Selection) 105 minutes |
||
| An End to the Brexit Mess | 10 or more party members | Selected for debate |
| Europe: The way forward | Local Party | Not selected |
| Key Messages from the Liberal Democrats Post-Brexit | Local Party | Not selected |
| F8 Cleaning Up the Air We Breathe: How to tackle road pollution 60 minutes |
||
| Lines 35/36, delete “near school…care homes” | 10 or more party members | Not selected |
| Invest in green power generation/transmission | Local Party | Not selected |
| Ban sale/import of new petrol and diesel cars | 10 or more party members | Selected for debate |
| Phase out of petrol/diesel in fleets of public bodies | 10 or more party members | Not selected |
| Extend unneccessary idling ban to private land | 10 or more party members | Selected for debate |
| Add “other incentives” to line 38 | 10 or more party members | Drafting amendment |
| Add low emission transport plans in lines 45/47 | 10 or more party members | Drafting amendment |
| Local authority action to introduce ultra low emission zones | 10 or more party members | Not selected |
| F9 Business Motion: A Registered Supporters’ Scheme F10 Constitutional Amendment: A Registered Supporters’ Scheme 105 minutes |
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| Members of other parties can register as supporters | Local Party | Selected for debate |
| Must be supporter for 6+ months to vote for leader | Local Party | Not Selected |
| Registered supporters voting for leader | Local Party | Not Selected |
| Non-MP leader | Local Party | Not Selected |
| Salary for non-MP leaders | 10 or more party members | Not Selected |
| Salary for non-MP presidents | 10 or more party members | Not Selected |
| SAOs and Supporter Registration | SAO | Not Selected |
| Separate Vote: Members of other parties can register as supporters | N/A | Not Selected |
| Separate Vote: Registered supporters voting for leader | N/A | Not Selected |
| Separate Vote: Non-MP as Leader | N/A | Not Selected |
| Separate Vote: Supporters voting in Leadership Elections; Non-MP as Leader; 12 Month Rule for PPCs | N/A | Not Selected |
| Separate Vote: Supporters serving on Policy Working Groups | FPC | Selected for debate |
| F12 Access to Justice for All 45 minutes |
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| Reduction in number of court buildings | Local Party | Selected for debate |
| F14 Emergency Motions & Topical Debates 45 minutes |
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| Removal of British Citizenship | Regional Party | In Order |
| Youth Crime and Youth Services | 10 or more party members | In Order |
| Combat Voter disinformation and manipulation | Local Party | Not In Order |
| The Independent Group and Proportional Representation | 10 or more party members | Not In Order |
| Topical Debate: Universal Basic Income | N/A | Not Selected |
| Topical Debate: Formation of The Independent Group – How should Liberal Democrats respond? | N/A | Not Selected |
| F15 Town centers fit for the future 45 minutes |
||
| Loss of Pubs | Local Party | Selected for debate |
| Access to Town Centres | Local Party | Not selected |
| Sunday Trading | Local Party | Not selected |
| F16 No to Unpaid Internships, Yes to Real Opportunities 45 minutes |
||
| No amendments received | ||
* Zoe O'Connell is Vice Chair of Federal Conference Committee and Vice Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats.
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5 Comments
Zoe, please can you state why the emergency motion on TIG was not selected? Also what does N/A stand for?
Presumably, any requests for reasons why particular Europe motions, emergency motions and topical debates, other amendments or applications for separate votes, etc, were “not selected” for debate or were ruled “not in order” could be raised as questions to the FCC report at Conference agenda item F2?
Since the FCC met on Saturday 9 March to consider its selections, these would be questions on events occurring after the initial deadline (Monday 4 March). I therefore understand that the relevant deadline for submitting any such questions remains 08:50 on Saturday 16 March (as printed in the agenda) – but perhaps Zoë or Geoff could confirm this point too?
The TIG item was a Topical Debate suggestion, not an Emergency Motion. Both Topical Debate suggestions and Separate Vote requests are submitted by individual party members rather than needing 10 party members, or a local party – hence N/A in that column.
Reasons for rejection are fed back to authorised drafting contacts. They’re free to make that feedback public, if they wish – or use the appeals process. There are some TIG-related items already, however, including a fringe on Friday evening and a session in the auditorium on Saturday lunchtime.
@Zoe O’Connell and @Michael BG:
1. Zoe’s reply seems to relate to Michael BG’s original comment, but does not specifically address my query regarding potential questions which could be raised to the FCC report.
2. Zoe also says: “The TIG item was a Topical Debate suggestion, not an Emergency Motion.” I can confirm that I was the person who submitted that topical debate suggestion (entitled ‘Formation of The Independent Group – how should Lib Dems respond?’) and that I personally accept the reasons given for its rejection, particularly the inclusion of a TIG consultation session in the auditorium on Saturday lunchtime. However, according to your own list above, an Emergency Motion was also submitted by 10 or more party members on ‘The Independent Group and Proportional Representation’, but ruled “not in order”. I assume that it was that emergency motion to which Michael BG was referring?
Hi Sean – We do not get involved in giving reasoning out publicly, only to the motion’s drafting contact.