Don’t sue me, sue him.
My personal favourite, not mentioned there, was the MP who took an impressionable young thing up to their hotel room at 1am for some guidance on “being a good PPC”. Jim Hacker used to say that in politics you need good elbows. Something tells me that aspiring PPC discovered you need good knees instead.
We’ve become the biggest party in Burnley after an independent councillor, Sam Holgate, decided to join the party.
Sarah, the party’s education spokesperson, is spending the week as a teaching assistant in a school in outer London. She’s blogging about it on the Guardian website: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/mortarboard/
Michael Brown, who gave £2.4m to the Liberal Democrats at the last general election has been jailed for two years.
The Electoral Commission’s ruling on whether the party would have to pay back the donation, which it (the party) has always maintained was received in good faith, can be summarised thus: “No. You don’t have to pay it back………
…..
….or do you?” *cue Eastenders dum-dum-dum-dum-da-da-da-da-DA*)
…Tony B is doing a great job of nodding and smiling at his ol’ mate Gordo during his speech.
But someone should’ve told the cabinet they’d be on camera too – never have so many people looked so miserable. Like a group of kids who have been told tomorrow is their last day at Disneyland. Which, like Chris Smith, is probably where most of them will end up when Gordo rules the roost.
One thing that will certainly get the politicos tongues wagging was TB practically falling off his chair applauding when GB said he’d relish the challenge of taking on David …
For no particular reason other than I recently found a second-hand copy on sale cheaply, I have just finished reading Demos’s 1997 collection, Life after politics.
Although these days Demos –with its reports on the crucial importance of hairdressers to modern society – tries a little too hard to be different and thought provoking, it was in its heyday one of the most successful think tanks in the UK. Leading lights such as Geoff Mulgan – the editor of this collection – went on to exercise significant real political power under New Labour; he spent time as Director of Policy at 10 Downing Street and also headed up the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit for several years.
The following seats have recently announced they are seeking Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (people to run as the Lib Dem candidate for MP at the next General Election).
We list the constituency name, application closing date, and the contact details of the Returning Officer, whom you should contact for an application form.
Picture the scene. It’s Britain, in the year 2006. The Prime Minister of the day announces he will preside over one more major party conference, then step down before the next.
You’d think then, that that the governing party’s conference would be a natural place to discuss his sucession – perhaps even a place for (gasp!) leadership hustings. But no. Labour’s Conference Committee has thrown out more than 140 attempts by Labour constituency parties to discuss issues such as the leadership on the grounds that – get this – the issue is not contemporary.
Delegates are also railing against the Labour Party’s decision not to hold an Annual General Meeting:
“The Labour Party with debts of over £25 million and membership down 10% in 1H 2006 is NOT holding an Annual General Meeting when members can hold the Leadership to account for its stewardship in the past 12 months.” says website LabourConference.Net
In the Liberal Democrats, even our smallest accounting unit – a local party – can be suspended if it fails to hold an Annual General Meeting. In our party, had our leader announced his intention to step down between conferences we would have laid on hustings at our conference (as, for that matter, even the Conservatives managed to do during their most recent leadership change!).
The Lib Dem website has a little film about climate change made for the party by Tim Ireland. Now don’t go humming the jingle all day…
In our final two Podcasts, Alex Foster speaks to Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat shadow Home Affairs spokesperson about his week in Brighton, and to Jeremy Hargreaves of the Federal Conference Committee, to hear about moves to make conference more accessible to the disabled.
It’s worth drawing out here the efforts the conference committee is going to to improve facilities for the disabled. Highlights include:
Finally, you can see highlights of each day’s debates on BBC Parliament: …
Well, I can tell you what I thought, but I’m no columnist.
Tell me what you thought – e-mail [email protected] and I’ll publish a representative sample ASAP.
These just in:
“Loved it. Strong, compelling, and above all Liberal.”
“I just wanted to say what was with the two arm wave? Have we elected a leader or a monarch?!”
“I though the speech was brilliant, and I really enjoyed the slideshows at the start, especially the Star Trek theme tune”
Alex Foster gets the interview he’s been angling after all week. Well, nearly.
A little bird tells libdemvoice.org that net guru Tim Ireland is making a viral marketing campaign for the Lib Dems. It’s a short piece to attack the Tories and it should be crossing your web-browser in the next few days. Can hardly wait.
I’d just like to say a particular welcome to new members coming to Lib Dem Voice after seeing a leaflet at Brighton conference – welcome! You may find it useful to read this introduction to the site. There were 3500 visitors to the site in its first week, so you’re in lots of (and hopefully good) company!
As I write, the conference centre is sleepily awakening for its final day – and the highlight, the first speech to an autumn conference by Ming Campbell. Delegates have been oiling their knees all night so we can leap to our feet the …
Alex speaks to two well-placed councillors on green issues and the challenges the party faces. Carol O’Gorman, leader of North Wilts District Council and Steve Comer, the Deputy Leader of Bristol City.
Why is it that every council has a “Council Government and Democracy” page?
Paul Buchanan, our deputy leader on Somerset County Council was very keen to talk of his council’s achievements in getting a green fleet up and running fuelled by grain grown within the County.
This podcast is an example of the snowball approach to gaining support. Alex pursuaded Chris Davies to speak into his recorder, and only moments later when the MEP’s phone rang, he snared Lembit Opik to continue with the interview.
Alex Foster took the opportunity of eight minutes alone in a quiet corridor with Iain Dale to check his linguistic skills – and received an interesting proposition.
Endemol UK are trying to get hold of amateur video clips and photos of anything interesting/exciting that happens at the conference – if you have filmed anything on a mobile-phones/digital camera please drop me an e-mail on [email protected] and I’ll put you in touch
Half an hour before Charles’ speech a rumour started to circulate that he had refused to shake Ming Campbell’s hand at the end of his speech.
Sure enough, Ming stayed in his seat and Charles stayed on the stage at the end of his speech.
Who knows what the truth was. But it’s perhaps not suprising that not all of the water has flowed under the bridge just yet.
Got some gossip? e-mail [email protected]
This story was reported on BBC News Online hours after we covered it.
You will have heard that the Thai government has been overthrown by a manic despot and a few loose cannons.
It would be grossly inappropriate to link that with the fact that Mark Oaten is unable to be at conference because he’s in… Thailand.
I’m sat in the debate on the Meeting the Challenge paper. So is the ls the leader. But the hall is disappointingly empty.
This is a debate on the core principles of our party – the narrative. Perhaps the party at large feels that our narrative is sufficiently well established that it doesn’t need to be debated. Still, fingers crossed that more people turn up for the actual vote.
UPDATE: After a failed attempt attempt at a ‘reference back’ (an attempt to send the motion back to the Federal Policy Committee for further consideration), the motion was carried near-unanimously.
I love conference. I love the chance to go somewhere I wouldn’t normally visit and meet up with thousands of like minded people. I love going to the Glee Club to discover that I’m not the first person to be attacked by a letterbox, and that in fact it’s such a common problem they wrote a song about it!
I hate conference. I hate travelling miles on terrible trains to expensive seaside resorts infested with nerdy obsessive types. The wretched Glee Club, filled with drunk crusties moaning discordantly about letterboxes and dogs is just the last straw!
This evening TV audiences will be flocking to switch on their kettles watch the new Liberal Democrat film (party political broadcast). But you can watch it now at: http://www.libdems.org.uk/news/lib-dem-ppb.html
The Federal Conference Comittee took Simon Hughes off the agenda at the spring conference earlier this year, so this was our first chance to hear from the President following the leadership election.
Hughes gave a personal, and verging on the emotional, account of what was, by all accounts, a pretty torrid time. He congratulated and supported both Ming and Chris, and thanked those in the hall who had supported him.
His core message was that the party should be “ambitious for Liberalism”. In a typically charismatic speech, he disappeared off the stage at one time to bear-hug the former Deputy First Minister …
Many organisations are accosting Lib Dem activists on their way in to and out of the conference centre, pushing their message through a succession of outrageously dull or outrageously witty leaflets.
Alex has been out meeting the leafletters… he came back looking distinctly windswept!
Alex Foster has interviewed John Hemming MP for Lib Dem Voice
John Hemming is one of the few blogging Lib Dem MPs, and you can find his blog at http://johnhemming.blogspot.com/
Alex Foster, that’s who!
Catch Alex’s Podcast with Nick Robinson, recorded only minutes after Kennedy’s speech, below.
Charles Kennedy got a standing ovation at the start of his speech, and another at the end. But he was denied the special treat Lib Dem activists bestow upon their leader – a round of applause every 15 seconds. Still, the reception was warm, affectionate even.
He reminded us of his success – 1 million new Lib Dem voters between 2001 and 2005. He urged us to uphold the principles of social liberalism, and to limit the role of markets in our public service policies. He called for the House of Lords to be renamed and elected using Proportional Representation. He called for a Welsh Parliament, and north of the border he urged us to help the next First Minister of Scotland be a Liberal Democrat First Minister. He ended by pleading with us to be the party of Europe.
I’m in the hall – the clapometer is clearly going in favour of the motion unamended – if that translates in to votes, the 50p top rate is on the way out.
UPDATE: after a series of good temperered speeches for and against, with standing room only in the hall to watch the result (both Ming and Paddy Ashdown were on the stage to applaud the unamended motion), the 50p rate is dropped in a 65/35 vote.
Lib Dem blogger of the year (keep saying it – he blushes) Stephen Tall has more.
That’s the leadership’s first headache of the day …
…am too hung over / alcohol poisoned.
Not really sure I could tell a microphone from a Mongoose right now.
Where am I? Who are all these people wearing yellow badges?
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We need a healthy and free leadership debate (Rosemary Runswick)
Mathew on Monday: Davey has been given a second chance. Now he must show us what his leadership is for (Mathew Hulbert)
The decapitation strategy (Michael Taylor)
Welcome (belatedly) to my day: 12 October 2026 – a leadership challenge, or a challenge to the leadership?… (Mark Valladares)
Is Ed Davey toast? (Caron Lindsay)
Robert Hale 
Rose Runswick 
Simon McGrath 
Richard Cripps 
Paul Culloty 
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?
IFS warn on the budget
Crash! (1971): An experimental television film with J.G. Ballard and Gabrielle Drake