Conference Countdown 2015: How do Conference debates work?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 22nd August 2015 - 9:04 am

In the run-up to Autumn Conference in Bournemouth, we’ll be looking ahead to examine the highlights in the debating hall, the fringe and training rooms. You can find the papers here. You can find all the posts in the series here.

For those of you who haven’t been to Conference before, I thought it might be useful to run through how Conference debates work.

Local parties, groups of Conference representatives and organisations (SAOs) like Liberal Youth and Lib Dem Women can submit motions to Conference. They are then circulated and are open to amendment. This year’s deadline for amendments is 1pm on Monday 7th September, so if you want to amend any of the motions, persuade 10 Conference representatives, or persuade your local party or an SAO to submit it for you. You can submit amendments online here and until next Tuesday at 1pm, you can even get drafting advice from expert motion writers here.

Each debate is chaired by a member of Conference Committee who has been trained in just about every eventuality that can take place. It’s probably best if you don’t see that last sentence as a challenge. They are helped by an aide who makes sure that they have all the speakers’ cards for the debate. Chair and aide will go through the cards ahead of the debate to ensure that it’s balanced and fairly represents a cross-section of views. There may be parts of a motion that nobody really cares about and other points which are hotly contested.

The debate opens with a speech from the person or group proposing the motion. Then the amendments selected for debate will be moved in turn by their proposers. Then the chair will call speakers in turn. They will call a speaker and ask the next one to stand by. At the end of the debate, someone will summate for each amendment. That basically means that they go through the speeches in the debate and respond to any points raised. The last speech before the vote is the summation from the people moving the motion.

Most speeches apart from the summations are of around 3-4 minutes in length, but occasionally, if a debate covers a lot of ground, the Conference Committee will schedule interventions of one minute.

Then Conference votes on each amendment in turn and the motion as amended.

So far, so uncomplicated. However, there are a few deviations from this pattern. If there are some words in the motion that you really can’t live with, you can ask for a separate vote (if you are a voting representative). From the Standing Orders:

A voting member of conference may request that the chair take a separate vote on a part of a motion or amendment provided that such a request is in writing and received by the commencement of the first conference session on the day before the debate is scheduled. If the debate is scheduled for the first day of conference, the request must be received in writing by the same deadline as that for emergency motions.

The Chair doesn’t have to grant your request.

If you think that the motion needs a bit more work on it, you can ask for the matter to be referred back to a particular body to come up with a better proposal. You have to submit a written request to the chair before the first speaker in reply has been told to stand by. The Chair can choose when in the debate to take the reference back. They will read out your statement and Conference then votes on whether to hear a mini debate on the reference back. If they choose to, you will get to make a 2 minute speech explaining why you want to refer the motion back. The movers will then have a chance to explain why the debate should proceed. Conference then votes on the reference back itself.

If you feel the motion isn’t even worth debating, you can move Next Business. The process is similar to that for making a reference back, but requires a two thirds majority. I can’t remember seeing a successful one of these, but I haven’t been to ever so many conferences. I am sure someone will be along to give multiple examples of when it has been done.

This is all process stuff, though. There is nothing like being in the hall when there’s a really passionate debate going on. The atmosphere can be breathtakingly tense, especially if the vote is really close and is being counted. We really do have some cracking debates. Here is my pick of the best speeches in 2013. That was the year we had a big stushie over the economy. Another highlight was a motion on online pornography which was refereed back and seems to have disappeared into the ether.

If you want to have more detail about the procedures and processes of submitting and debating motions, you can read the Standing Orders in the back of the agenda.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings

4 Comments

Jenny Barnes 22nd Aug '15 - 4:12pm

It’s a real pity that speaking and voting rights are not allowed for those attending for less than the entire conference. I was considering attending on Monday, but I can watch and listen to everyone else’s views just as well on TV. How will new members – who may not have the time to spare for a 5 day conference – feel about this sort of exclusion? Probably as happy as I am – not. I have had the opportunity to speak and vote at other conferences, so it’s not as if I don’t know the ropes, but we’ve been telling all our new members how democratic conference is, how one can influence policy… but unless you can go for 5 days, it turns out, not so much.
Richard Underhill 22nd Aug '15 - 7:21pm

The summary makes it all seem very complicated, but BE PREPARED.
“if a debate covers a lot of ground, the Conference Committee will schedule interventions of one minute”
They mean it, so rehearse the intervention. Some chairmen or women will cut off the microphone after 60 seconds.
On important issues there may have been a fringe meeting the evening before in a more relaxed format, limited ruthlessly to precisely 60 minutes, so check the fringe agenda.
There may be a ballot for emergency motions, with its own short deadlines, so make your choice/s, by STV of course.
Ian Sanderson (RM3) 23rd Aug '15 - 5:15pm

‘It’s a real pity that speaking and voting rights are not allowed for those attending for less than the entire conference.’
It’s not a matter of attending, it’s a matter of registering. It you register as a Voting Represenative for the whole conference and only attend for part, you would be entitled to speak whenever you attend. It doesn’t cost much if you register early on – in fact it is small compared to to cost of overnight accommodation for a whole conference. The cost of registration goes up sharply as the time of the conference approaches.
Like so many things in life and politics, the earlier you start preparing the easier it will be.
Richard Underhill 23rd Aug '15 - 6:13pm

Ian Sanderson (RM3) 23rd Aug ’15 – 5:15pm Yes, but the discounted rates ignore the fact that the agenda has not been published. Conference can be used as a rally, as a training opportunity, as an opportunity to speak at fringe meetings, as a chance to meet people geographically separated, sometimes as a theatrical event by Liberator, or a late night sing song in the Glee Club, but the primary function is to ensure that the democratic structure of the party remains a reality, for instance the motion on Heathrow was extended to Gatwick.