Author Archives: The Voice

Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium.  Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow’s instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

So what is happening today at Conference?

Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium.  Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow’s instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

So what is happening today at Conference?

We hope you’ve spotted the open thread on the action taking place in the main auditorium today. In comparison, this thread is for you to talk about fringe meetings, the exhibition and all the other things going on around the main business.

What is going on today?

After Vince’s foray into the fringe yesterday, it’s Nick Clegg’s turn today. Anyone who stays till the end of the One Member One Vote debate is unlikely to get a seat. He talks to Phil Collins from the Times in the Trouville Hotel at 6:15.  He makes a speech to Conference just before lunch and then goes straight to a fringe meeting on what the EU Referendum will mean for people in work in Bayview 2 in the BIC.

Given his longstanding commitment to EU, it is appropriate that today is heavily focused towards Europe and particularly to getting the Lib Dems’ campaign to stay in Europe under way. Tim Farron and Catherine Bearder will be speaking at a fringe meeting at which activists will be urged to throw themselves into recruiting pro EU supporters to help us – benefitting both the cause and the party. Our  Europe campaign website has all you need to know about how to get involved.  There seems to be an emphasis on holding house parties. Let’s just hope that the instructions they give us aren’t as prescriptive as this David Miliband document which was widely mocked. 

Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium.  Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow’s instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

So what is happening today at Conference?

Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium.  Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow’s instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

So what is happening today at Conference?

Here is the speech Tim is about to deliver at tonight’s conference rally:

Last Wednesday, was the 29th anniversary of me joining the party when I was 16. I never ever thought I’d end up leading that party. Its an extraordinary honour.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Like many of us I often find myself harking back to that time – my formative, teenage years. It was the 1980s: The Smiths and The Clash, The Young Ones – and, of course, Margaret Thatcher.

I’d been brought up on Blue Peter appeals which – while good and worthy – attached no blame to anyone for the tragedies they raised money to alleviate.

But then came Live Aid. It was the first time anyone had suggested to me that poverty, disease and starvation were actually the result of bad politics rather than just ‘unfortunate’. And I began to question what was happening in politics around me.