Opinion: The day the Northern Irish came to Scottish Conference

For many years now I have attended Scottish Liberal Democrat conference as a Northern Irish person. I’m not alone as there are many familiar accents scattered across the Scottish parties of other Northern Irish born members.

However, last weekend was the first time I attended as a Northern Irish local party member, but again I was not alone. I’d travelled over with the local party chair Michael Carchrie Campbell and one of our youth members Stephen McFarland had travelled down with the rest of the Aberdeen University crew.

It was a good conference for us all to get to, even though Michael and I spent ten hours travelling there and back. Scotland is the closest conference to Northern Ireland. The majority of local students who study outside Northern Ireland do so, like Stephen, in one of the Scottish Universities. Also we had the opportunity to meet both the party presidential candidates. There are no plans for either of them to visit Northern Ireland, but with a rapidly growing local party we may be able to persuade the powers that be of the need for a hustings in Belfast for the next election cycle.

As is often the case with these things a lot of the time was spent networking. Michael knew only a few Scottish members in person, a few more from online and so was getting to meet the various people who came by to meet me. I was also quite pleased to the see the largest West Lothian local party delegation I’ve seen at conference for quite a few years.

But we weren’t only passive observers of conference. Both of us managed to make contributions in rather different ways.

Mine was the more traditional approach, look through the agenda, look at which subjects I can make a meaningful contribution to and put in a speakers card. I chose the Intercity Express Programme to make my debut speech at Scottish Conference as a Northern Irish party member. Michael’s contribution to debate on the day was somewhat more unorthodox. At lunchtime we attended the Long-Term Conditions Alliance Scotland fringe event. At one point one of the contributors said what was needed was greater co-ordination between NHS Scotland and the Social Care providers. It prompted Michael in one of his various hats to pass a note to the chair saying they should consider the situation in Northern Ireland where Health and Social Care are under the one umbrella.

We had a good day, or should that be weekend, out getting to Scottish Conference. For me it was a good time to catch up with old friends and Michael to make many new ones as well. It was nice to know that part of Northern Ireland made an impact at Scottish Conference this Autumn.

Stephen Glenn was Parliamentary candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk in May but has since returned to Northern Ireland and blogs at Stephen’s Liberal Journal. Michael Carchrie Campbell is the Chair of the Northern Irish Local Party and blogs at GYRONNY HERALD. Together they are the main bloggers for Liberal Democrats in Northern Ireland

Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in Op-eds and Scotland.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tristan Ward
    Britain and the rest of Europe need to spend more money on defence - and fast. The USA seem ready to walk away from the post 1945 security settlement (lets not...
  • nvelope2003
    Interesting how the oh so clever like to boost their image by making patronising comments. At least I had the grace to make a full apology as soon as I was able...
  • Peter Davies
    @John Marriott. Not many people think a billion is a hundred million. There are still plenty who think it's a million million (the original meaning). The popula...
  • Joseph Bourke
    ‘Pax Americana' superceded Pax Britannica (the relative peace between the great powers in the time period roughly bounded by the Napoleonic Wars and World War...
  • Simon R
    @Steve Trevethan: Might you possibly be confusing 'Donald Trump' with 'The USA'? :-) What Trump says, believes, and does is in many respects not like what many...