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Category Archives: Conference

Anything relating to the spring or autumn conferences

Opinion: Conference – elitist drinking club or democratic decision-making?

By Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera | Wed 18th September 2013 - 5:16 pm

I find myself reflecting on Chief Whip Alistair Charmichael’s quip suggesting that the real business of Conference is done, carousing late into the night, in the bars and hotels of Glasgow.

In the mean time I have been standing on the town hall steps, speaking with constituents and pondering how such an aspiring egalitarian Party concentrates power and decision making into two exclusive weeks each year that leave the majority of the Party disempowered and without any voice. During the other 50 weeks of the year we have a plethora of committees, sub-committees, special interest groups, local, federal and membership involvement to the nth degree. All this ends as soon as soon as Conference begins.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged conference and featured | 66 Comments

Opinion: Mr Cameron call a general election – we relish the challenge

By Harry Hayfield | Wed 18th September 2013 - 4:18 pm

I am pretty sure that everyone can remember where they were at on 7 May 2010. I, for one, was being staggered as I caught up with the results overnight that the Liberal Democrats had polled a staggering six million votes, the highest number of votes since the days of the Alliance. I was running at more or less 24% of the national vote and winning seats such as Redcar, Burnley and Bradford East and coming oh so close in seats such as Ashfield, Swansea West, Derby North. At the same time as that was happening, Nick Clegg came to …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged 2015 general election and glasgow conference 2013 | 21 Comments

Nick Clegg’s speech to Lib Dem conference 2013

By The Voice | Wed 18th September 2013 - 3:05 pm

Nick’s just mounted the platform in Glasgow – here’s what he’s expected to say over the next 40 minutes or so…

Three years ago – nearly three and a half – I walked into the Cabinet Office for my first day as Deputy Prime Minister.

Picture it: history in the making as a Liberal Democrat leader entered, finally, into the corridors of power, preparing to unshackle Britain after years of Labour and Conservative rule. Only to arrive and find an empty room and one shell-shocked civil servant promising

…

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Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and nick clegg | 13 Comments

The Independent View: Will competition and choice open up the banking sector for the better?

By Adrian Kamellard | Wed 18th September 2013 - 1:08 pm

In light of the launch of this week’s Current Account Switching Scheme, the Liberal Democrat conference was well timed to ask at a fringe meeting: “Will competition and choice open up the banking sector?”

In short, the scheme guarantees that anyone who wishes to move their current bank account to another institution will be able to do so hassle-free in seven working days. No burden is placed on the customer and it is all underpinned by a seven-day guarantee. This is real progress from the previous 30-day process and importantly the lack of a guarantee that often saw customers doing the legwork themselves. I hope to see positive effects of the changes in the months to come.

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged banking and glasgow conference 2013 | 2 Comments

LDVideo: Stephen Tall reviews the Lib Dem year for BBC’s Daily Politics

By The Voice | Wed 18th September 2013 - 11:10 am

Stephen Tall reviews the Lib Dem year – it’s ups and its down – for the BBC’s Daily Politics, recalling some of the questions on Nick’s weekly LBC radio phone-in, Call Clegg…

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Also posted in News and YouTube | Tagged call clegg, daily politics (bbc) and stephen tall | 4 Comments

Danny Alexander: “Difficult decisions lie ahead: people can trust the Liberal Democrats to make them”

By The Voice | Wed 18th September 2013 - 10:25 am

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference in Glasgow on Tuesday, Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander highlighted four key points:

1)

2) that Labour “derailed the economy” once and will do so again, given the chance;

3) that the Tories’ obsession with hire-and-fire and anti-Europeanism put the recovery at risk;

4) that Lib Dems are making a real difference – taking the low-paid

…

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Tagged Danny Alexander | 2 Comments

Conference Preview: Wednesday 18 September

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 18th September 2013 - 8:29 am

Conference closes exactly one year away from the Scottish independence Referendum. To mark the occasion, Secretary of State for Scotland will develop the themes of identity he’s been talking about recently. He’ll say:

I am a Borderer and a Scot.

I’m proud of those things.

But as a twenty first century Scot, I have another layer to my identity.

I am British and I’m proud of that, too.

So are most Scots.

The vast majority of people I speak to – friends, constituents, people in communities the length and breadth of Scotland – are at ease with their identities.

Glaswegians, Borderers, highlanders, Fifers, islanders.

Across the country, people

…

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Tagged autumn conference 2013 | 2 Comments

Clegg: “Every primary school pupil should be able to sit down to a hot, healthy lunch with their classmates every day”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 17th September 2013 - 8:15 pm

Nick Clegg’s speech to the Lib Dem conference on Wednesday will contain one new, significant policy announcement: all pupils at infant schools in England are to get free school lunches from next September.

In addition, disadvantaged students at sixth form colleges and further education colleges in England will also be eligible for free school meals also from next September. Money is also being provided for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but as education is a devolved issue, it will be up to those running schools there to decide whether …

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Also posted in News | Tagged free school meals, henry dimbleby, john vincent, marriage tax allowance, nick clegg, schools and universal benefits | 112 Comments

Conference agrees reduced nuclear deterrent by 322 votes to 228

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 17th September 2013 - 2:34 pm

This morning’s debate on defence was heavily dominated by just one subject – whether or not Britain should continue to have a nuclear deterrent.

An amendment rejecting any renewal of Trident, which had no big name backers, came within 100 votes of defeating Danny Alexander’s motion. It was quite an achievement for the amendment’s proposer, George Potter, to get it at least to a counted vote.

The speech of the debate came from Glasgow’s Paul Coleshill who likened replacing Trident to a middle aged man buying a sports car as a mid life crisis – but one he could only use on …

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Also posted in News | Tagged autumn conference 2013 | 9 Comments

Conference comment: What the papers say (4)

By Newsmoggie | Tue 17th September 2013 - 1:31 pm

THAT email, the one giving a briefing to MPs on how to address the media, was always going to delight the political gossips. And so it proved. Shorn of the drama of a full out Farron versus Clegg versus Cable bloodbath, the quidnuncs in the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and at politics.co.uk leapt on the email. The New Statesmen notes that MPs are told not to refer to the “bedroom tax”, it is a “spare room subsidy.” Regardless, as the Guardian and Inside Housing report, the conference condemned the bedroom tax for discriminating against the most vulnerable in society.

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Also posted in News | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 | 6 Comments

Lib Dem activists on Newsnight

By Mary Reid | Tue 17th September 2013 - 10:36 am

I was one of thirty or so party members invited to be the audience last night on Newsnight. We were encouraged to join in the discussion with Vince Cable and other guests, including Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz.

As usual the BBC does not allow us to embed their videos but you can view the programme on i-Player.

Tagged newsnight and vince cable | Leave a comment

Conference Preview: Tuesday 17th September

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 17th September 2013 - 7:45 am

Welcome to part 4 of my stroll through the Conference agenda. This one is actually being prepared live, so I can add in a couple of hints and tips that I’ve gleaned over the first few days.

Handy hints

1) It is much quicker to go outside to get between the Crowne Plaza,Exhibition and Clyde Auditorium rather than take the labyrinthine, interminable corridors inside.

2) I only discovered last night that there is a corridor full of comfy, quiet sofas with power points for charging phones on the way to the Leven room in the SECC. Mind you , now I’ve said it, …

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Also posted in News | Tagged autumn conference 2013 | Leave a comment

Lib Dems reject 50p top-rate of tax by just 4 votes, 224 to 220

By Stephen Tall | Tue 17th September 2013 - 12:35 am

How many times have Lib Dems knocked on doors at 9.55pm to get out the last remaining identified voters because “your vote really could make a difference” in this election?

Today’s vote on whether to keep the top-rate of tax levied on those earning £150k or more at 45p, or to pledge to raise it to 50p was much, much, much closer: conference narrowly voted for the leadership’s preferred policy – 45p – by a wafer thin majority of just 4 votes, 224 to 220.

The closest previous conference vote I can recall was in spring 2007 when representatives voted …

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Tagged featured, Ming Campbell, nick clegg and tax | 11 Comments

Race Equality motion passed unanimously

By Mary Reid | Mon 16th September 2013 - 3:12 pm

While all eyes were on the Economy debate today, in the hour before Conference debated another important motion. It was entitled ‘A new Liberal Democrat approach to Race Equality’, and can be found on page 36 of the Conference Agenda. This motion was the outcome of the first report by the Liberal Democrat Race Equality Task Force: ‘Towards Race Equality: A Liberal Democrat Approach‘, which focused on education and employment.

This new approach sought to bring race equality back into focus in public debate. In recent years it has been …

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Tagged gareth epps, janice turner, jemima bland, liberal democrat race equality task force, merlene emerson, neville farmer and race equality | 6 Comments

Nick Clegg Conference Q&A: live-blog

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th September 2013 - 2:50 pm

A relaxed looking, tieless Nick Clegg is about to take to the conference floor, for the second time today, to take questions from conference representatives…

Zero-hour contracts:

2.47 pm… Pauline Wilson (SE Cambridgeshire) says they work for her grandson, so please don’t ban them. Nick Clegg says yes, they do work for some, but can easily topple over into unfairness. For example, if an employer has an exclusivity contract which stops the employee from taking other work.

Economy debate

2.53 pm… Richard Rowles (Romsey & Southampton North) asks, “Are we still fighting for all the people of Britain?” Nick reflects on the debate …

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2 Comments

Vince pitches for the Lib Dems to be the new unity party; Nick breathes a sigh of relief

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th September 2013 - 2:25 pm

Overnight it was reported that Vince Cable wouldn’t be attending the Lib Dem debate on the economy because he would be busy preparing his keynote speech to conference. As diplomatic excuses go, it wasn’t subtle. In the end he managed to combine both, belatedly joining the debate thronged by cameras, before his turn to take centre stage.

The speech – which you can read in full here – reminds us of Vince’s original roots both in Glasgow and in Labour …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, nick clegg and vince cable | 3 Comments

Vince Cable’s speech to Conference

By Mary Reid | Mon 16th September 2013 - 1:53 pm

The agenda for Tuesday morning was rounded off with a speech from Vince Cable, which we publish here in full:

Friends.

It is a special pleasure to speak to Conference in the city where I had my political baptism of fire. Glasgow is a great city and Glaswegians are warm, hospitable and humorous.

But Glasgow has experienced one party, Labour, rule for decades. And I was part of the Labour political machine here in the 1970s. On one level it worked. Insanitary slums were razed to …

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Tagged vince cable and zero hours contracts | 2 Comments

Conference economy debate: Nick Clegg’s summation in full

By Andy Boddington | Mon 16th September 2013 - 12:52 pm

Chairman Andrew Wiseman called Nick Clegg of Sheffield to summate on the economy debate. Nick said:

Colleagues, just to show that I can also agree with Paul Homes, I strongly agree with Paul about what a brilliant, brilliant debate that was. It really, really does show us at our very, very best. No other part could stage such a democratic and respectful debate. Well done to everybody on whatever side you were on the debate.

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Tagged economy, glasgow conference 2013 and nick clegg | 4 Comments

Economy motion carried: Nick Clegg wins overwhelming backing from Lib Dem conference

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th September 2013 - 12:45 pm

Lib Dem conference has spoken — and it has overwhelmingly backed Nick Clegg. Before the debate I had a hunch the result would be somewhat different. Though Nick had shrugged off a reported split with Vince Cable as “a storm in a tea cup”, I thought Vince’s obvious discontent with the decision to make this vote a test of strength, together with the assiduous ground-work and careful drafting of the Social Liberal Forum’s amendments, would pose a real problem for the party leadership.

And for the first third of the debate I thought my hunch might be fulfilled, with …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged brian matthews, economy, featured, gareth epps, katherine bavage, nick clegg, nick thornsby, steve webb and tim farron | 10 Comments

Conference comment: What the papers say (3)

By Newsmoggie | Mon 16th September 2013 - 9:11 am

Today’s big debate is on the economy and the Guardian reports Vince Cable and Nick Clegg at odds over future economic direction:

Clegg has decided to stage what Cable and some on the left regard as an artificial showdown over economic policy during a set-piece two-hour debate… Cable’s aides said he will stay away from the debate, which is being billed as a test of Clegg’s authority. Cable believed a compromise could have been reached between the leadership and the left over their amendments to the economic motion, especially the right for councils to borrow more to build.

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Also posted in News | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 | 8 Comments

Conference: Do the Liberal Democrats want more homes and more jobs?

By Gareth Epps | Mon 16th September 2013 - 6:52 am

Do the Liberal Democrats want more homes and more jobs? That and other questions that will get an answer, one way or another, when our Conference debates the economy today (Monday). One of the two amendments tabled by the Social Liberal Forum with support from 100 Conference representatives calls for the Coalition to commence the dramatic increase in housebuilding that the Party endorsed last year.

The barriers to this at present are, as ever, in the housebuilding industry and the Treasury.

The former has by most estimates some 400,000 planning consents at its disposal, assisted by policies that effectively waived the lapsing …

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Tagged economy, glasgow conference 2013 and housing | 13 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats must champion our economic achievements

By David Thorpe | Sun 15th September 2013 - 6:02 pm

It’s the enduring burden placed upon liberals that we are often found to have made the correct policies calls in the crucible of history. But we fail to turn such perspicacity into a victory in the more immediate court of public opinion.

Whether it is on major issues such as the Liberal party’s historic pioneering of the welfare state before any other; the commitment to green issues which predated Cameron’s hugging of a husky by two decades; Caroline Pidgeon’s proposal for a bicycle hire scheme before either Boris or Ken; liberals have historically been ahead of the policy curve, nut been …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged economy and glasgow conference 2013 | 9 Comments

Opinion: Clegg’s rethink on immigration visa bonds needs a rethink

By Lester Holloway | Sun 15th September 2013 - 5:35 pm

Plans to impose a blanket £3,000 ‘bail’ bond on all visitors from Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are on hold after Clegg refused to “sign them off”, according to the Guardian .

However speaking on the Andrew Marr show this this morning Clegg confirmed that a pilot scheme would go ahead. He suggested the bail bond becomes a general tool for border officials rather than a blanket policy covering all visitors irrespective of how genuine they appear.

The danger is that border staff could now have a new weapon in their armoury to disproportionately exercise against citizens of colour …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and immigration | 12 Comments

Conference: Defending the Future will not defend the realm

By Tim Oliver | Sun 15th September 2013 - 2:02 pm

The defence of the realm is the foremost responsibility of any government. The defence policy paper that will be debated in Glasgow this week is not only worrying, but potentially dangerous.

The first business of any defence policy is to recognise that the armed forces are to wage war in the name of our interests. We must be clear what these interests are. We can then be clear as to when we will deploy our armed forces into combat, what equipment they will need, the training they will require and the size and composition they must be. War is, after all, …

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Tagged defence, glasgow conference 2013 and nuclear disarmament | 3 Comments

Opinion: The Bank of England’s Independence – the Law

By Bill le Breton | Sun 15th September 2013 - 12:01 pm

According to the Independent, Nick Clegg wants to take on the ‘left’ in his Party.

In doing so he accuses the Social Liberal Forum’s amendments to the economics motion as “ending the Bank of England’s independence by ordering it to do more to create jobs” and “tearing up the fiscal mandate.”

Let’s deal with the first accusation. The 1998 Bank of England Act granted the Bank independence to set interest rates. That is instrument independence. However, the remit for the Bank is set by the government and so The Bank does not have goal independence, it takes its goals each Spring from the Government.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged bank of england, economy and glasgow conference 2013 | 17 Comments

The Independent View: Coalition should do more to promote the creative industries as a growth sector

By Jo Dipple | Sun 15th September 2013 - 10:03 am

The Coalition Government’s record for the creative industries is mixed.

On the plus side, innovations such as the Creative Industries Council are welcome and have enabled a lot of cross industry collaboration on common issues affecting different sectors, such as skills and access to finance.

The enabling of the Live Music Act to come into law and promises of further entertainment deregulation are of huge benefit to my sector.

Creative industries have benefited from tax breaks to enable them to continue to compete globally.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged creative industries, glasgow conference 2013 and the independent view | 10 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think about nuclear power, fracking, tuition fees and online pornography

By Stephen Tall | Sun 15th September 2013 - 8:15 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 700 party members responded – thank you – and we’re publishing the full results.

In advance of this year’s federal conference in Glasgow, we asked about a number of hot-topic issues that are going to be discussed here over the next few days. here’s what you had to say about the issues being debated today, Sunday…

65% say yes to nuclear power

Do you believe that nuclear power, alongside oil and gas and …

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Also posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged fracking, nucelar power, pornography and tuition fees | 39 Comments

Opinion: Keep the Bank of England Independent

By Rob Blackie | Sun 15th September 2013 - 8:01 am

Conference on Monday will debate an amendment from the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) to the Economy Motion which calls the government to “monitor closely the progress of the Bank of England, ensuring it has a refocused mandate that allows monetary policy to aid growth, reduce the unemployment rate to below 6% creating at least a million jobs, and to address weak income growth, targeting a higher level of national/median income.”

Who could possibly disagree with that? Well, me for a start. In practice this is reducing the independence of the Bank of England.

Liberal Democrats have long argued that the Bank of …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged bank of england and glasgow conference 2013 | 11 Comments

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