Category Archives: Conference

Anything relating to the spring or autumn conferences

Kate Hudson

The Independent View: An opportunity to direct the debate on Trident replacement

By Kate Hudson | Fri 21st September 2012 - 3:32 pm

In September 2010, Lib Dem Voice ran a revealing poll of its members to gauge opinion on Trident. With results strikingly similar to YouGov polls of Lib Dem members nationally, it found that 57% were opposed to replacing Trident and nuclear weapons altogether, while 90% were opposed to replacing Trident with a ‘like-for-like’ system.

It was commendable that the Liberal Democrats carried this sentiment into their 2010 election manifesto: standing apart from the Conservative and Labour consensus of ploughing £100bn into nuclear weapons amidst the worst economic crisis of recent times.

Opponents of Trident outside the party were also inspired by …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: Planning rules

By Chris White | Fri 21st September 2012 - 11:12 am

Those of you who have worked your way through the conference agenda and Conference Extra will by now have reached the emergency motions (page 28, since you ask) and will notice that there are four in the ballot: banks are awful, Julian Assange is awful, teacher qualifications are under threat and ‘what have you done with our planning system?’

I paraphrase unfairly, of course. All tastes are clearly catered for and you can make your own mind up about which to vote for if you are at conference.

The planning one (which I have something to do with) is a mild rebuke to government and unusual because ALDC, its sponsor, rarely uses its rights to propose motions. Its mild tone perhaps masks the considerable anger at grass roots level: on 6 September the Government made various announcements about relaxing planning rules, claiming that these will help kickstart the economy. In summary these are

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Also posted in Local government, News and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 13 Comments
Jenny Willott

Jenny Willott MP writes… Young people and policing: the opportunity of Crime Commissioner elections

By Jenny Willott | Fri 21st September 2012 - 9:56 am

With the November elections for Police and Crime Commissioners rapidly approaching, candidates across the country are starting to outline how they intend to improve public safety in the areas they want to represent. Successful candidates will have to set out a five year police and crime plan to determine local policing priorities.

One issue I think is vital for candidates to address is how to engage properly with young people. Back in 2006, when I was our Shadow Minister for Youth Affairs, young people often spoke to me about their lack of confidence in the police. Today, I still have the …

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Mark Pack

Conference preview: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

By Mark Pack | Fri 21st September 2012 - 9:20 am

This year, the Liberal Democrat autumn conference has one day per theme, covering jobs, education, environment and tax.

Monday is jobs, with policy motions on creating jobs and policy papers on both sustainable prosperity and also on mutuals, employee ownership and workplace democracy. The first of these (F23) may generate some lively debate around an amendment that would delete the reference to keeping to the government’s “fiscal mandate”.

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s guide to the craziness of Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 20th September 2012 - 6:03 pm

Last year was the first time I’d been to a Federal Conference in 13 years. I thoroughly enjoyed every exhausting moment. Conference is the best fun you will ever have, but if you’re new, it can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to the sensory overload. I spent the first day wandering round like a child in a toy shop.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d throw together a fairly random list of tips and hints for getting the best out of the annual cornucopia of Liberal Democracy.

1. Plan your days

The Conference day starts with breakfast fringes …

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Mark Pack

Conference preview: Saturday and Sunday

By Mark Pack | Thu 20th September 2012 - 10:25 am

This year, the Liberal Democrat autumn conference has one day per theme, covering jobs, education, environment and tax.

Saturday is education day, with David Laws giving a keynote speech. For many party members he is more respected than trusted; recognised for his skills yet leaving people uneasy over quite what a David Laws manifesto would look like or whether it was right to bring him back into government this year. Saturday is his big chance to win over members.

If he chooses to take it, that is – as there …

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Stephen Tall

Your one-stop online guide to Lib Dem conference events – we’ve got an app for that

By Stephen Tall | Wed 19th September 2012 - 11:25 am

The Lib Dem conference guide is my political-geek equivalent of the Christmas Radio Times, thumbing through it in anticipation, circling the must-watch events, worrying about all the clashes of things I want to see.

But just as PVRs and Sky+ mean I no longer fret about missing my fave programmes so have our advertising partners MessageSpace developed an online guide – FringeList – which contains every event taking place: when, where, who’s speaking, and who’s attending.

You can search for particular speakers (including who’s speaking most often), find out which are the most popular events, and create your own …

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NewsHound

FFAC chair Greenland acknowledges LDV accreditation article was “unhelpful”

By NewsHound | Wed 19th September 2012 - 10:55 am

The chair of the Federal Finance and Administration Committee, Duncan Greenland has written an article in the Conference edition of Liberator on the highly controversial issue of Conference accreditation. A Liberal Democrat Voice poll in June, consistent with every other test of party opinion on the issue, showed that a majority of respondents opposed the system, which requires conference attendees to undergo police checks.

Mr Greenland felt that the Liberator coverage on the issue had been “misleading” and wanted to put the record straight about the process by which accreditation was approved. He stated that FFAC had become involved after …

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Mark Pack

Liberal Democrat conference: the daily themes

By Mark Pack | Wed 19th September 2012 - 10:25 am

Back in the 1990s, the idea of theming different days of party conference around particular themes was a fairly controversial issue, even playing a role in contested elections for membership of Federal Conference Committee and then elections from within its membership for Chair and Vice-Chair.*

Since then the idea has become well-established, if sometimes more in theory than in practice. Looking through not just the agenda for the 2012 autumn conference in Brighton but also associated conference publications and …

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Mark Pack

MP conference fringe league table 2012: Norman Baker is the new Simon Hughes, but he’s no Vince Cable

By Mark Pack | Tue 18th September 2012 - 10:25 am

Back for its fourth year (see 2009, 2010 and 2011) is my conference fringe meeting league table, showing how many fringes each MP will be speaking at. As ever, this is based on the information from the official fringe listings in the printed conference directory. With the reshuffle, I expect a fair number of fringe organisers are reshuffling their panels too; the table is still however a good indicator of the combination of demand for certain MPs and their enthusiasm for working the fringe.

Trends to note include that Cable topped the table the first two times, then slipped to third …

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The Voice

Less than 21 hours to get your BOTY nominations in…..

By The Voice | Thu 13th September 2012 - 8:35 pm

It’s almost two weeks since Helen Duffett invited us to submit our nominations for the prestigious Liberal Democrat Voice Blog of the Year.  Nominations close at 5pm tomorrow so if you haven’t done yours yet, you had better get your finger out. You are allowed to nominate your own blog – and nobody will ever know that you did. All the relevant details and the categories are reproduced below. If you are at Conference, the winners will be unveiled at an every expense spared ceremony at Conference. Better get that tux dry cleaned….

Make your choices and get them in …

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Emily Davey

Opinion: Should we regulate all private landlords – over to you, conference

By Emily Davey | Fri 7th September 2012 - 9:45 am

The party’s housing working group has looked at the laws around the private rented sector. We had a choice of whether we regulate: no private landlords, or some private landlords or all private landlords. The party’s housing working group rejected the deregulation option. But we didn’t reach agreement on whether we should regulate some landlords, targeting landlords with more vulnerable tenants, or regulate all 1 million private landlords. It will be for conference to decide.

Large houses in multiple occupation (HMO), e.g. student houses, have always been regulated because HMO tenants have always been seen to be at a greater risk of harm. The Housing Act 2004 increased the regulation introducing licensing which covers both the state of the property and the ability of the landlord to manage the property. The Housing Act 2004 also enabled councils to introduce targeted licensing (Selective or Additional licensing) but only in areas subject to anti-social behaviour or low housing demand.

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Also posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 32 Comments
Mark Pack

Reports to party conference: two good things

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 11:50 am

In amongst the paperwork for the Autumn 2012 Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton is the bundle of reports from various party committees and bodies. The idea of the reports, and the ability to question them, is a great one. The content of the reports can have a tendency to be a little too banal or general to make for a meaningful report back from committees to people who elected them.

Take this shock news from the FCC report, for example:

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Mid Term Review: not much to show for it in the end

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 4:25 pm

As I predicted, the Mid Term Review is peetering out into a Q&A session as the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton. As the report from the party’s Federal Policy Committee explains, glossing over a little how the plans have changed from the original ambitions:

The Coalition Government has stated its intention to have a Mid Term Review of its programme, which will be published in Autumn 2012. However, this will not be a general re-opening of the Coalition Programme for Government. Instead, it will essentially be a progress assessment exercise to identify which of the goals set out in the

…

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 7 Comments
Antony Hook and Sarah Osborne

20’s Plenty: Road Safety Set For Debate At Conference

By Antony Hook and Sarah Osborne | Fri 17th August 2012 - 10:30 am

We are ecstatic that our motion “Twenty’s Plenty: Saving Lives On The Road” will be debated at the Party Conference next month.  We believe that the Liberal Democrats can best lead the country on road safety.

Too many of us, including one author of this article, have experienced the dreaded phone call or police visit to say a friend or relative has been killed on a residential street. We do all we can to prevent this avoidable pain.

Road deaths are a public health crisis. We suffer one of the highest proportions of pedestrian fatalities in Europe and it is worsening. 2011 saw a 12% increase in pedestrian casualties, and half of road deaths and serious injuries in Britain occur on 30 mph limit roads.

There is cause for hope. We can change this. Our motion calls for 20mph to become the standard speed limit on residential roads.

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Also posted in News | Tagged | 56 Comments
Mary Reid

The Conference agenda – media roundup

By Mary Reid | Thu 16th August 2012 - 3:15 pm

The agenda for Autumn Conference has been online for five days, and has already attracted attention from the media. It is instructive to see which stories are  picked up by whom.

The Guardian focuses on the Housing Policy paper under the headline: Liberal Democrats propose major housebuilding programme.

The Independent homes in on the motion proposed by Danny Alexander on ‘Generating Growth and Jobs in a Time of Austerity’: Liberal Democrats slam Osborne over green policies.

Our opposition to airport expansion, and the motion from Watford, are also of interest to the Independent: Lib Dems to oppose South East airport expansion plans. This is also picked up by the BBC, by ITN.

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Also posted in News | Tagged | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

Lib Dems publish plan for 300,000 homes to be built a year

By Mark Pack | Thu 16th August 2012 - 12:44 pm

I’ve talked a few times about how housing has become an increasingly important policy in the rhetoric of Liberal Democrat ministers (see Danny Alexander set to up the ante on anti-Tory rhetoric and housing and Vince Cable on “one of the great acts of economic vandalism in modern times”).

Whether or not that rhetoric will produce policy results is the big question.

At which point, enter stage left a policy motion in the agenda for next month’s Liberal Democrat conference:

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Also posted in News | Tagged , and | 47 Comments
Helen Duffett

Autumn 2012 Conference agenda: online now

By Helen Duffett | Fri 10th August 2012 - 3:20 pm

Simon Hughes MP emails party members:

We’re now just a few weeks away from our main annual conference.

If you’re already heading to Brighton this year, that’s great. I look forward to seeing you there.

The agenda is now online.

As well as the opportunity to debate with, quiz and meet the Deputy Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Parties, we have a packed programme including speeches from Sarah Teather, Tim Farron and Vince Cable, and policy debates on growth, housing and green jobs.

If you’ve not yet signed up to come to conference, please do so here.

It is a

…

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Tagged | 3 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Mark Pack on how party leaders should be speaking this autumn

By NewsHound | Tue 31st July 2012 - 4:50 pm

Over on the Biteback Publishing website, The Voice’s Mark Pack has been penning some words of advice for those planning party leader conference speeches:

Technological change has frequently altered the speaking styles of political orators. The exaggerated hand movements and booming voice projections of the pre-electrical era were essential for being seen and heard. As film footage spread, that approach increasingly came over as histrionic. The total distanced travelled by the hands and arms of politicians during their speeches therefore declined, thanks to the adoption of a more homely, direct style. Radio and TV both brought about their own changes, followed by the impact of the teleprompter in the 1980s…

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Also posted in LibLink | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

Join the Party Congress of the European Liberal Democrats!

By Mark Valladares | Fri 20th July 2012 - 3:21 pm

The Congress of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) is the number one event for Liberal Democrats who want to adopt policies, network and debate in the European context.
 
The 2012 Congress will take place in Dublin on 8-10 November. The main theme of this year will be a liberal roadmap for energy transition in Europe. In addition to debates on this issue, there will be a fringe programme to cater for a broad range of interests, as well as exclusive sessions for parliamentarians.
 
Join the 500 ministers, party leaders, European commissioners, national and European parliamentarians, local councillors and party …

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Mark Pack

You don’t have to be a conference rep to go to conference

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd July 2012 - 10:50 am

Neither a voting conference rep nor a suited lobbyist need you be to go to Liberal Democrat Party conference, yet amongst party members there is often an implicit assumption that federal party is something for other people rather than something for them.

This is particularly unfortunate when, as with this autumn, the conference venue (Brighton) is within easy travel distance of a large portion of the party’s membership. People can register to go to conference for just one day for £35 (£17 claimants) and get to sample the debates, the fringe and the atmosphere – and if you are within commuting distance all that without having to pay Brighton accommodation prices.

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7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Poll Result: Majority of Lib Dem members reject conference accreditation

By Stephen Tall | Sun 3rd June 2012 - 8:55 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. Some 560 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Members oppose accreditation 52%-36%

The decision by the party to approve a system of police accreditation for Lib Dem members attending this year’s Autumn Conference triggered one of LibDemVoice’s most vigorous recent comments threads. We asked our sample of members their view:

LDV asked: The party has announced there will be a system of police accreditation for members attending this year’s Autumn Conference citing …

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Also posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged and | 14 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Conference Accreditation Consultation – what Liberal Democrat bloggers are saying

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 19th April 2012 - 5:53 pm

Last Saturday, Federal Conference Committee chair Andrew Wiseman invited responses  in an article on Liberal Democrat Voice from members on the controversial issue of an accreditation system for Conference. Sussex Police had requested that party members would have to submit their identity details and past addresses so that they could be checked out by the Police to keep out people who might cause security issues.

Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Democrat blogosphere has been vocal in response. If there has been a post out there in favour of such a system, then I’ve not been able to find it.

At Liberal England, …

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Mark Pack

Conference accreditation: my submission

By Mark Pack | Wed 18th April 2012 - 9:25 am

Here is what I am emailing to [email protected] in response to the consultation about party conference (deadline Saturday 21st April):

Dear Andrew,

In itself, the idea that background checks might sometimes be a necessary part of extra security for events seems to me very plausible. So too does the possibility that the large number of journalists and TV cameras in attendance at the autumn round of party conferences make them a more attractive target for disruptive or violent action than other events at other times, even ones with similar prominent people from the party and government attending.

On the other hand, I know …

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Also posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments
Andrew Wiseman

Andrew Wiseman writes: Seeking your views on Conference accreditation

By Andrew Wiseman | Sat 14th April 2012 - 12:25 pm

Federal Conference this autumn takes place in Brighton, and as you would expect FCC and conference office staff are in discussion with Sussex police about security arrangements for conference.

1. Security at conference

Most security arrangements will be those we always have at conference and are not controversial among conference-goers (as shown by reps’ feedback). The Brighton venue is of course very used to these levels of security, both for our conferences and those of other parties.

The police and security services have however also requested that we use ‘accreditation’ for conference reps. There are widely different views within the party on …

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75 Comments
Helen Duffett

Autumn Conference 2013 to be held in Glasgow

By Helen Duffett | Thu 5th April 2012 - 10:22 am

The Scotsman proudly announces that the Liberal Democrats are taking their Federal Conference to Glasgow in autumn 2013.

Glasgow is in line for a £12 million boost as the Liberal Democrats announced they will hold next year’s autumn party conference in the city.

It will be the first time Scotland has hosted a national Lib Dem conference for over a decade and the event will also be the largest conference to be held in the city since 2004, with around 7,000 delegates expected to attend from across the UK.

The event is in September 2013 at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre

…

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Donna Richardson

Independent View: IGEM makes a splash at the Liberal Democrats Spring conference

By Donna Richardson | Sat 24th March 2012 - 10:42 am

The Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) exhibited at the Liberal Democrats Spring 2012 Conference, which took place at The Sage centre in Gateshead from 9th – 11th March 2012.

It is the first time IGEM has exhibited at a political party’s conference and it gave the organisation a chance to raise its profile with senior Liberal Democrats holding key posts in the Coalition Government. IGEM met Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg, Vince Cable (Business Secretary), Danny Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) and Ed Davey (Energy Secretary).

During visits to IGEM’s area, the ministers …

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Ruth Bright

Conference heroes and heroines

By Ruth Bright | Wed 14th March 2012 - 6:59 pm

Shirley Williams – for rejecting the title of living deity with characteristic common sense in her Sabbath day speech to conference.

Evan Harris – for cutting through the cynicism of christening motions after national treasures by teasing conference with his “William Beveridge” amendment speech on the Shirley Williams motion. What next – the Conrad Russell memorial welfare reforms or the John Stuart Mill cuts in Sure Start? That’s enough naming stuff after deities living or dead thanks very much.

Pamphleteers Prateek Buch (Plan C – social liberal approaches to a fair, sustainable economy published by Social Liberal Forum) and Jo Ingold (Challenges …

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Sean Davey

Liberal Youth storm Spring Conference

By Sean Davey | Wed 14th March 2012 - 10:56 am

Last Friday night Liberal Democrat conference was blown away by 19yr old Londoner Yahaya Kiyingi’s heartfelt and incredibly delivered rally speech about Liberalism, opportunity and the next generation.

Yahaya talked about his family moving from Uganda to London, growing up in one of the poorest areas of his borough, but aspiring to where he is today through the principles of opportunity and empowerment which define our Liberal identity.

Everyone, starting with Nick Clegg wanted to meet him and sing his praises afterwards, and as Simon Hughes told conference “You are why we are in politics Yahaya”.

But Yahaya’s narrative wasn’t just a …

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo at Conference: Lib Dem activists speak out against NHS Bill

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th March 2012 - 8:10 pm

If you missed out on today’s key NHS debate at the Lib Dems’ spring conference, this BBC video featuring clips from a handful of the speakers who oppose the Coalition’s NHS reforms gives you a flavour. You can also catch up with what happened via Mark Pack’s live-blog of the debate here, and my round-up of the immediate reactions to the vote against the party leadership here.

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