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Category Archives: Conference

Anything relating to the spring or autumn conferences

Nick Clegg’s Conference rally speech – “We are the party of jobs”

By Nick Clegg MP | Sat 14th September 2013 - 6:01 pm

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference rally in Glasgow this evening, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is expected to say:

Welcome to Glasgow. This year’s conference sees us gather in a city that has always been important to the Liberal Democrats, a city once represented by Roy Jenkins, that gave us Ming Campbell and where nearby in 2005 Jo Swinson won a famous victory to take her seat from Labour and become an MP at just 25.

Before anything I want to pay tribute to our team of Scottish MPs who lead the way in Parliament in arguing for a United Kingdom that is strong, secure and together. All under the direction of our fantastic Chief Whip and rally compere.

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Tagged economy, featured, glasgow conference 2013 and nick clegg | 11 Comments

Conference: Willie Rennie MSP – A stronger Scotland within the UK

By Willie Rennie | Sat 14th September 2013 - 5:01 pm

Speaking to Scottish Liberal Democrat Autumn conference in Glasgow, Willie Rennie MSP, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats said:

On the first Sunday of this month I took part in a relay race over the Comrie hills near Perth.

Covering 20 miles with teams of five runners we battled clubs from across Scotland.

For the third year in a row my partner was David Greig.

That’s right. David Greig, one of Scotland’s foremost playwrights.

We are equally matched runners. Less equally matched playwrights.

We support each other up and down the hills.

Through the bogs and over the heather.

We both run for the team – Carnegie Harriers.

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Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and Scottish referendum | 3 Comments

Opinion: We need zero tolerance for zero hours contracts

By Richard Kilpatrick | Sat 14th September 2013 - 4:02 pm

This week Labour began to move the economic debate away from deficit reduction to living standards. It really is a shame that the party elected in 1997 to tackle social mobility and subsequently failed to shorten the gap between the richest and poorest in our society now seem to stand up for working families in hard economic times. Wednesday saw Ed Miliband’s dismal attempt to rekindle his relationship with the TUC but for me he did touch on an issue close to my heart; he committed to legislating to curb the use of zero hour contracts.

I have to admit a special interest, I have worked for a company that uses zero hour contracts for about a year. I myself am not on a zero hour contract. I am also a student and understand the level of flexibility that is required by some people. However I refuse to accept that flexibility cannot be achieved while providing income stability, holiday pay and a safety net for when you fall ill. It is also not constructive for a company to build a relationship with its staff using zero hour contracts resulting in a large staff turnover and an unhealthy competition for hours.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged employment rights, glasgow conference 2013 and zero hours contracts | 4 Comments

Conference Comment: What the papers say (1)

By Newsmoggie | Sat 14th September 2013 - 9:59 am

It fairly wall to wall Lib Dem coverage in the national press today and party leaders are cheerleading for our role in the coalition. Even newspapers that are not normally friendly towards the Lib Dems have something positive to say. There is a grudging respect that the Lib Dems took on the near impossible task of collaborating in a coalition government and have stuck with it.

Nick Clegg gives an exclusive and upbeat interview to the Independent.

Over in the Telegraph, Danny Alexander says that hard pressed workers deserve pay rises as the economy recovers. He says the party has to “shout from the roof tops“ to ensure that voters recognise the role it has played in improving the economy.

Anyone who says this better economic news is all to the credit of the Conservatives is wrong. This is a joint plan that bears the imprint of the Lib Dems.

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Tagged glasgow conference 2013 | 7 Comments

Nick Clegg – “The clouds are lifting. We need to look people in the eye and say – we got it right”

By Andy Boddington | Sat 14th September 2013 - 8:01 am

Speaking to the Independent, Nick Clegg is upbeat:

We need to be unabashed about the fact that we have played a vital, even pivotal, role in saving the British economy and a leading role in providing fairness in the tax, education and skills systems and greening our economy for the future.

Clegg gives a list of Tory proposals that the Lib Dems have vetoed. Among them are a recent attempt to cut planned child care provision for two-year-olds; a 40p top rate of income tax; cuts in inheritance tax for the rich; workers being “fired at will” without good reason; state schools being run for profit; a divisive two-tier examination system; and regional pay for public sector workers.

We need to explain that this country would be very different indeed – in my view a lot less fair – if the Conservatives had been left to their own devices.

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Also posted in News | Tagged featured, glasgow conference 2013 and nick clegg | 32 Comments

Jeremy Browne MP writes… Proud of our record in Government

By Jeremy Browne MP | Sat 14th September 2013 - 6:50 am

The fundamental question for Liberal Democrats gathering for conference is this: are we proud of our Government or ashamed of it?

I think we should be proud.

The Coalition Government came together in 2010 when Britain was in deep trouble. We had been hit by an economic shockwave. The last Government was borrowing a ruinous £450 million extra every single day.

We also faced serious problems which held our people back and threatened our future prosperity. Entrenched inter-generational poverty and welfare dependency needed to be tackled head-on. School standards had fallen behind our international competitors, wasting the talent of our young people and …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged coalition government and glasgow conference 2013 | 21 Comments

Conference: The Coalition and Beyond – Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead

By Louise Shaw | Fri 13th September 2013 - 3:02 pm

Liberal Reform’s first publication – The Coalition and Beyond : Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead is an interesting, thoughtful and practical guide to ideas the party needs to be looking at the next few years, through the rest of the coalition and beyond.

We’ve had some really great contributions, from people within and outside the party with liberal credentials. It’s been remarked already how many different levels of the party have contributed to this – from Parliamentarians, to PPCs and ordinary activists and members. We did have this aim in mind, so are pleased with the result.

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1 Comment

Conference: Emergency Motion – Home Office Immigration Poster Vans and Attitude to Migrant Communities

By Merlene Emerson | Fri 13th September 2013 - 1:03 pm

I was a witness at an Immigration tribunal hearing earlier this year for a friend. Let’s call her Little Red. She came to the UK from China as a masters student and worked for the NHS on graduation. But following a painful divorce she found she no longer had the right to work and live in the UK. Little Red has appealed the Home Office’s decision but is still waiting for an answer. Hers is merely one case in half a million back log of cases currently with the Home Office or in the appeals system.

At a packed meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration at the House of Commons on 9th July, I met a Welsh lady who had responded to their enquiry. She recently became a grandmother and her new grandson was only two weeks old at the time. But as her daughter did not earn more than £18,600 per year, she could not sponsor her non-EU spouse under the Family Migration Rules that came in a year ago. It was heart breaking to see a young family torn apart.

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Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and immigration | 4 Comments

Conference: Nuclear power – the raw politics

By Mike Tuffrey | Fri 13th September 2013 - 12:03 pm

Will the Lib Dems ditch their historic opposition to nuclear power? That debate is set to be one of the main flashpoints at the Glasgow conference. New polling evidence – published here for the first time – shows the outcome will affect support among key voter groups – ‘our market’, as the jargon goes – with all that means for key seats and the overall result of the next election.

Of course the debate itself will be about technical details: how nuclear technology can be called safe when no solution has yet been found for waste that remains lethally radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years; whether the promise of no public subsidy can be true if Brussels has to approve funding guarantees as “state aid”; and how renewables will ever gain critical mass if the high costs of nuclear crowds out resources and public funding for newer technologies?

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and nuclear power | 10 Comments

Menzies and Paddy on coalition politics and the election

By Andy Boddington | Fri 13th September 2013 - 10:03 am

In today’s Guardian, Menzies Campbell says that Nick Clegg has turned the corner and his role as leader is no longer under threat:

Coalition politics is not for the faint-hearted. Nor is leadership, as Nick Clegg will tell you. As he contemplates his fourth party conference as deputy PM, his thoughts, and his leader’s speech, need to be turning to the general election, now less than two years away. He can do so with more confidence than 12 months ago. Last year’s atrial flutterings over his leadership have died away. His policy of differentiation between the Liberal Democrats and their Tory partners has become overt and even reciprocated.

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Also posted in General Election | Tagged 2015 election and glasgow conference 2013 | 17 Comments

Download now: Lib Dem Autumn 2013 Conference app

By Lewis Redfern | Tue 10th September 2013 - 8:00 pm

We are delighted to announce that our Autumn Conference App is now available for download. The Conference App is an supplement to the Conference Agenda, Directory and Training Guide.

My two favourite features on the App are:

My Schedule: add fringe events, auditorium sessions and training to an electronic diary.
Business Card : swap your contact information with other attendees in seconds.

We do understand there were a few issues with the App at Spring Conference due to the lack of WiFi and poor mobile signal. There will be complimentary WiFi in the SECC …

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12 Comments

The Liberal Democrat Voice Team at Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 10th September 2013 - 10:25 am

Last Saturday, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre was full of trolls, superheroes, and Pokemon. I kid you not. 20,000 people, many of them in costume, turned up for the Scottish Comic Con event. My daughter, or Karkat Vantas as she preferred to be called, was one of them. The photo shows a selection of the colourful and elaborate costumes on show.

Next Saturday, it’ll be full of Liberal Democrats gathering for Conference. Insert your own joke here. In the first of a series of preview posts, I …

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Also posted in News | Tagged autumn conference 2013, caron lindsay, nick thornsby and stephen tall | Leave a comment

Conference Preview: Saturday 14th September

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 9th September 2013 - 9:30 pm

I thought it might be helpful to have a wee mosy around the Conference agenda and highlight some of the must-see picks of each day.

You can always guarantee with a Conference agenda that there will be at least two things you want to do at any given moment. In fact, if it’s only two, that’s a bonus. On Saturday, I need to split myself into 10 to do everything I need to do.

The age old concept of divide and rule is alive and well in 2013. If you have two highly contentious consultation sessions likely to be attended by roughly …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged autumn conference 2013 | 2 Comments

Lynne Featherstone says “End female genital mutilation in a generation”

By Andy Boddington | Sat 7th September 2013 - 9:03 am

Lynne Reatherstone FGM

Conference Committee is meeting today to discuss amendments to be taken at the Glasgow conference. An amendment to the motion on Domestic and Sexual violence concerns Female Genital Mutilation.

Yesterday international development undersecretary Lynne Featherstone told the Guardian that ending female genital mutilation is a priority for the British government. She said that Africa’s success in outlawing the centuries-old practice means the world now has the opportunity of a lifetime to consign it to history within a generation. Click here for the video.

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

How hard are the Lib Dems willing to fight for their green reputation?

By NewsHound | Mon 2nd September 2013 - 5:03 pm

In a thoughtful piece on Business Green, editor James Murray asks:

How hard are the Lib Dems willing to fight for their green reputation?

To paraphrase him, he says “move over Green Party”:

It is the Lib Dems that have repeatedly pioneered demanding yet largely realistic green policies. You might not have agreed with every green policy they proposed – for example, the party’s long standing opposition to nuclear power continues to divide environmentalists – but for much of the past 20 years the Party has maintained an admirably distinctive green voice at Westminster.

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Also posted in News | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and green policy | 7 Comments

Amendment watch: preparing the ground for Conference debates in Glasgow

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 28th August 2013 - 2:22 pm

The deadline for amendments to Conference motions is 1 pm next Monday, 2nd September. This means that, all over the country, people will be emailing all their contacts trying to drum up support for their particular amendment. This can be quite a difficult process. So, I thought, why doesn’t Liberal Democrat Voice try and make it a bit smoother?

I have asked about in various places for details of proposed amendments going round and I’ll give details of them further down. If you want to highlight one that you are working on, please post details in the comments. We’ll need to …

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Also posted in News | Tagged amendments, autumn conference 2013 and motions | 8 Comments

Conference preview: The training programme

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 21st August 2013 - 2:10 pm

Some people go to Liberal Democrat Conference and never get anywhere near the debating hall, because the fringe, exhibition and training programme provide such a cornucopia of interesting and enriching entertainment. Others mix and match between debates and fringes.

This year’s training programme, which you can view in full here, is intense. There are three and a half full days of sessions on a huge variety of subjects. During the day, there can be as many as nine sessions going on at once. The Party’s training guide has suggestions for courses to attend if you’re a local or parliamentary candidate, …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged autumn conference 2013, conference and training | Leave a comment

Federal Conference directory available

By The Voice | Mon 19th August 2013 - 1:15 pm

The directory, with fringe listings and ministerial Q&A sessions, for the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference on 14th-18th September is now available here. So plan your fringe programme today.

Your particular attention is drawn to the Liberal Democrat Voice Awards at 10pm on Saturday evening.

Liberal Democrat Voice
Liberal Democrat Voice Awards (incorporating Blog of the Year)
The BOTYs are back with new categories alongside old favourites. Join us for an evening of unrivalled glamour and fun with Nick Clegg and surprise guests as we celebrate the best of blogs, people and media. Dress: imaginative.
Crowne Plaza, Castle 2

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Tagged autumn conference 2013 | 4 Comments

Reminder: 10 days to get your nominations in for the Liberal Democrat Voice Awards

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 13th August 2013 - 7:55 pm

Last week, I introduced this year’s Liberal Democrat Voice Awards and invited you to submit your nominations by Friday 23rd August.

This is just a reminder to you. We’ve already had a fair few nominations, but there’s plenty room for more, so send your suggestions to [email protected] as soon as you can. Please also feel free to publicise the awards on your own blog or via social media. In the olden days, before I was a member of the team, I used to do posts about the bloggers I’d be nominating.

This year’s awards are as follows:

Liberal Democrat Blog of the

…

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Also posted in Best of the blogs and News | Tagged autumn conference 2013, featured and Liberal Democrat Voice Awards 2013 | Leave a comment

Don Foster declares war on betting shops

By Mary Reid | Wed 7th August 2013 - 1:51 pm

One of the lower profile motions on the agenda for Federal Conference in Glasgow is entitled ‘High Street Gambling’. It is relatively short and contains just two recommendations:

Conference therefore calls on Liberal Democrats in government to push for:
1. Betting shops to be put in a new separate planning use class, allowing local authority planning committees to control them
2. The Gambling Act to be amended to allow council licensing committees to take into account the cumulative impact of a proliferation of gambling activities when considering applications.

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Tagged betting shops, don foster, gambling and glasgow conference 2013 | 11 Comments

15 things to look out for at the Lib Dem conference

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th August 2013 - 10:55 am

The Lib Dems have published the agenda for our autumn conference — I’ve uploaded it to read at the foot of this post. It’s a pretty meaty agenda, too, with big issues up for debate. This, after all, is the penultimate autumn conference before the 2015 general election, which means it’s important for determining what makes it into the party’s manifesto.

I’ve skim-read the agenda this morning. It seems it can be read in alternative ways. My main impression was “How different is this to what a Conservative agenda would look like?” I don’t just mean that Lib Dem conferences give our members a real say in our policy-making (compare that with the Tories who won’t even publish their official membership numbers). I mean that if you look at the topics being discussed and the recommendations arising you wouldn’t for a moment confuse this with a party that’s a sub-set of the Tory party. Which is more or less the impression you’d get if you relied on Patrick Wintour’s reporting in The Guardian.

Anyway, here are 15 things which caught my eye based on a quick skim-read (so apologies in advance if I’ve missed out the bit you think’s most important):

1) Commitment to a living wage:

Saturday afternoon’s debate on policy motion F4, A Balanced Working Life, calls the establishment of an official living wage, one that it is paid by central government (with local government encouraged also to lead by example), and making companies that employ over 250 people be transparent about how many of their employees are not paid the living wage.

2) Extending free childcare:

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged #ldconf, featured and glasgow conference 2013 | 16 Comments

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference agenda available

By Joe Otten | Mon 5th August 2013 - 5:06 pm

Agenda papers for the federal conference in Glasgow have been published. Within the theme of ‘a stronger economy in a fairer society, allowing everyone to get on in life’ there are policy motions on work life balance, green growth, learning and skills, fairer taxes, strengthening the economy, housing benefit, tackling sexual and domestic violence, racial equality, and more.

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Tagged autumn conference 2013, conference and stronger economy fairer society | 8 Comments

40 sleeps till the Liberal Democrat Voice Awards and we need your help

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 5th August 2013 - 10:25 am

It’s less than 6 weeks until Federal Conference in Glasgow. And late on the Saturday night of Conference, as always, Liberal Democrat Voice will be holding its annual awards. This is the 8th such ceremony, and this year, we’re making a few changes. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a ~~budget~~ lavish ceremony in Castle 2 at the Crowne Plaza between 10 and 11:30 pm. The dress code is “imaginative.”

There will be some Very Important Guests. Some we will keep as surprises, but we can …

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Also posted in Best of the blogs and News | Tagged featured and Liberal Democrat Voice Awards 2013 | 5 Comments

ALDE Party Congress needs you!

By NewsHound | Wed 31st July 2013 - 12:50 pm

What is the ALDE Party?

It is an alliance of Liberals and Democrats across Europe consisting of more than 50 member parties, Liberal Democrats in the UK being the largest.

What is ALDE Party Congress?

ALDE is arranging their annual party congress in Canary Wharf, London this year. The theme of the Congress is creating a European Manifesto. The ALDE Party Congress is the biggest annual event gathering Liberals across Europe:

over 650 members of liberal parties from around the continent;
top politicians including Prime Ministers, European Commissioners, Ministers, Members of the European and national Parliaments, Members of the Committee of the Regions, and many

…

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Also posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged ALDE | 6 Comments

Opening shortly: Autumn conference 2013 registration

By Andrew Wiseman | Wed 17th April 2013 - 5:54 pm

We are delighted to announce that members’ registration will open shortly for Autumn 2013 Federal Conference in Glasgow. We very excited that Conference is making a return to Scotland after many years’ absence.

The event will take place at the SECC (Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre), Exhibition Way, Glasgow, from 10am on Saturday 14th September to around 3:30pm on Wednesday 18th September. The conference hotel will be the Crowne Plaza.

In order to cut down on costs and be more environmentally friendly, there is a discount available for those who are content not to receive any papers …

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Tagged conference accreditation, Danny Alexander, ed davey and glasgow | 9 Comments

Opinion: Gender blindness or… why we don’t want token women

By Jade Holden and Ewan Hoyle and Eilidh Dickson | Fri 15th March 2013 - 1:21 pm

To the delight of many party members, Mark Pack recently announced his decision to decline invitations to sit on all-male panels at Liberal Democrat fringes, urging other men to take the same course of action. A few of us, however, feel uncomfortable with the suggestion that women should be invited to speak for their contribution to the diversity of the panel, rather than for what they can bring to the debate.

Currently, anybody who is invited to speak at a fringe can be confident that they have been asked – obvious choice or not – because somebody thought they had something …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged gender equality | 60 Comments

LDVideo: Lib Dem spring conference round-up (2)

By The Voice | Mon 11th March 2013 - 12:45 pm

Missed the Lib Dems’ spring conference this weekend? Here are three clips to help you catch-up, or re-live, some of what happened… (You can see part 1 of our round-up here.)

Nick Clegg criticises Theresa May’s Human Rights Convention comments

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Also posted in YouTube | Tagged channel 4 news, nick clegg and paddy ashdown | Leave a comment

LDVideo: Lib Dem spring conference round-up (1)

By The Voice | Mon 11th March 2013 - 8:05 am

Missed the Lib Dems’ spring conference this weekend? Here are three clips to help you catch-up, or re-live, some of what happened…

“Where we work we win” says Nick Clegg

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Also posted in YouTube | Tagged 2013 brighton spring conference, jo shaw, nick clegg and paddy ashdown | 2 Comments

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy (Josh Babarinde)
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As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)
From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)
We do have a two tier system, Part 2 (Neil Hickman)

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A clear, credible, principled strategy from the Yorkists! Makes a welcome change. Sadly, followed by twenty below-the-line posts, providing nearly twenty ve...
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so we get a permanant increase in costs for these subsidies based on ( alleged ) windfall profits. Its another big increase in spending -how is it to be paid ...
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