The Voice

Conference debates open thread: Wednesday 23rd September

By The Voice | Wed 23rd September 2015 - 8:30 am

Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium.  Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow’s instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

So what is happening today at Conference?

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Caron Lindsay

Preview: Scottish Liberal Democrats Broadcast: Willie Rennie’s story

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd September 2015 - 7:27 am

Scottish Liberal Democrat party broadcasts have previously been in the, shall we say, Blake’s 7 school of production values. That’s not to say that there wasn’t great content, but it came across as homely.

Well, all that’s changed with the new broadcast being aired tonight.

Here’s a tiny snippet. You’ll be able to watch it on tv and on here later.

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Paul Walter

If you missed any bits of conference…how to catch up on YouTube

By Paul Walter | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 5:45 pm

Lib Dem YouTube channelSssshhh! Don’t tell anyone. This is a secret and we need to keep it that way.

If you want to watch any bits of conference in “catch up mode”, head over to the party’s YouTube channel here.

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The Voice

The funniest moment of Conference so far…

By The Voice | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 4:55 pm

Or at least, the funniest that didn’t involve pig jokes..

The BBC’s Daily Politics team tried to get Alistair Carmichael to choose between David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn. Not a wise move…

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The Voice

Sal Brinton’s Presidential address to Conference

By The Voice | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 3:45 pm

Here is the text of Sal Brinton’s Presidential address to Conference. She talked about the threat to our democracy from the Tories’ massive spending on election campaigning and their plans for boundary changes. She talked about getting the party in the right shape for that fightback, to “give our country a democracy that works for all’. Here’s her speech in full:

 

The last couple of years have shown us that traditional assumptions about politics are useless.

Our world is being turned upside down, and,  unpredictable even to the pundits.

So much so that Lloyd George’s famous comment “The world is becoming like a lunatic asylum run by the lunatics”. That was over 110 years ago – perhaps some things never change!

We faced our hardest results in decades on 7 May, made much harder in recent weeks by watching  David Cameron and the Tories undoing many of the things that we achieved in Government.

A large number of people – not just Lib Dems – have said to me that they now understand what we did in Parliament as the Tories undo them, one by one.  The shock of losing so many colleagues has been compounded by the Tories making cuts to the most vulnerable in our society.  

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The Voice

In Full: Willie Rennie’s speech to Conference: Our liberal, radical offer to create real freedom for people in Scotland

By The Voice | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 2:30 pm

Scottish Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie gave his speech to Conference yesterday. Unlike Kirsty, he didn’t dwell on the coalition years. He did, however, offer a devastating critique of the SNP Government, citing its illiberal and centralising instincts.

He set out his agenda for the elections to the Scottish Parliament next May:

Our election campaign will be about liberal values.

At our heart we want every individual to achieve their potential.

So we will bring in childcare and the pupil premium for children who need it, wherever they live in Scotland. Giving opportunity to every child to get up and get on – no matter the circumstances of their birth.

We stand with the powerless against the strong. Mental health will be taken seriously. No more six month waits. Professionals on standby in every A&E.

We say power is safer when it is shared and will trust communities and individuals with the power to control their own lives – putting an end to the Holyrood-knows-best mentality.

So we will put democracy back into the police and return to traditional Scottish policing by consent.

We will empower public sector workers – teachers, doctors, nurses, police and more;

Stripping back top-down targets, controls, league tables and testing to give them the freedom to do their job.

And we will share power across the whole UK to give a stable constitutional future for Scotland;

A federal system is a positive, unifying future for Scotland and the rest of the UK.

This is our positive vision;

Here is the speech in full:

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Christopher Ecclestone

Read my lips: No seat reduction

By Christopher Ecclestone | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 1:30 pm

I just got back from two days at the Conference in Bournemouth. The absence of discussion of strategy was deafening. However, no less than three people either said to me or mentioned from the dais the reduction of seats from 650 to 600 “which the Tories are going to do”.

I have bemoaned the lack of psephological nous in the party before but, really, some members seem to like to wallow in misery and fantasy.

It is true that the seat reduction as proposed was set to disadvantage us and Labour at the Tory benefit. That is a given. However time and events have moved on.

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Paul Walter

VIDEO: Watch the “Scrapping Trident” debate in full

By Paul Walter | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 12:30 pm

Click below to watch this excellent example of Liberal Democrat debate from yesterday:

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NewsHound

Kelvin Mackenzie offers Stephen Tall £5000 to fulfil his pledge to run down Whitehall naked…

By NewsHound | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 11:55 am

Remember that pledge of Stephen Tall’s that he’d run naked down Whitehall if we were down to 24 seats in the election? Well, he has been reminded about it every time he’s appeared on the Daily Politics since. Back on the programme yesterday, he was put in an awkward position when former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie offered £5000 to charity for Stephen to do it. So long as the legal issues can be overcome, there doesn’t seem to be a way he can get out of it now. From the Telegraph:

Stephen Tall, co-editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, was asked on the BBC’s Daily Politics show why he had not yet delivered on his promise to run nude if his party lost half of its seats.

The Sun’s former editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who appeared on the same show, then offered Mr Tall £5,000 to complete the challenge.

Mr Tall and Mr MacKenzie shook hands on the promise that he would carry out the task in return for the money being donated to his chosen charity.

See the exchange on iPlayer here.

Stephen took to Twitter to repent in 140 characters.

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News Meerkat

Controversy over Glee Club Song Book, in connection with Charles Kennedy – the full story

By News Meerkat | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 10:54 am

PoliticsHome reports:

Campaigners have criticised the Liberal Democrats over songs mocking Charles Kennedy’s alcoholism just three months after his death.

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Caron Lindsay

Conference Extras open thread: Tuesday 22 September: It’ll all end in Glee

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 10:30 am

We hope you’ve spotted the open thread on the action taking place in the main auditorium today. In comparison, this thread is for you to talk about fringe meetings, the exhibition and all the other things going on around the main business.

Today’s highlights

At 7:45 tonight, Norman Lamb is interviewed by Helen Duffett, the editor of the party’s all member Ad Lib magazine. She’ll be asking him about his plans for the future.

Norman will also be on a panel at lunchtime with our Stephen Tall at a Resolution Foundation fringe meeting discussing the need to rethink the Liberal Democrat approach to social justice.

At the same time Jo Swinson joins polling experts on a panel looking into why the polls got it so very wrong in the election.

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The Voice

In Full: Kirsty Williams’ speech to Liberal Democrat Conference: A Britain without liberalism is a Britain that has lost its soul

By The Voice | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 9:47 am

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams gave her keynote speech to Conference yesterday and she did not mince her words.

She was candid about the failings of the coalition, saying that it looked like we’d never even tried to keep the pledge on tuition fees, and that our identity had been lost. 

She also said that one of the best ways to improve gender balance in parliamentarians was to help in Wales to make sure the Liberal Democrats did well as female candidates had been selected in many winnable seats.

She also set out her stall for the elections:

We believe in Freedom. Freedom of the individual, so everyone has the opportunity to be who they want to be and reach their full potential

We believe in Fairness – for diversity, against intolerance – the voice for the voiceless

And we believe in Community. Where we as individuals work together for the common good, where we empower communities to make decisions that work best for them

Most other parties can achieve some of those principles, but none combine them.

And what makes us unique is that we’re liberals

Feeling so strongly about something so positive gives us the power and confidence needed to take us forward:

The confidence to say immigration benefits our country

The confidence to say rehabilitation works better than prison

The confidence to say our voting systems, our institutions, our whole political system quite frankly stinks

The Human Rights Act, the green agenda, mental health – we fight for the underdog, we fight for what is right, leading on the issues that no-one else will.

Here is her speech in full:

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The Voice

Conference debates open thread: Tuesday 22nd September

By The Voice | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 8:30 am

Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium.  Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow’s instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

So what is happening today at Conference?

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Duncan Brack

The ideas that built the Liberal Democrats

By Duncan Brack | Tue 22nd September 2015 - 7:00 am

The ideas that built the Liberal DemocratsPolitics rest on beliefs. Political parties that operate without a philosophical framework stand for little more than personality and populism. But equally, beliefs must rest on thought – they must be continually defined, tested and debated rather than simply inherited unquestioningly.

That’s part of what the Federal Policy Committee’s Agenda 2020 process is all about; I’ve written about the various elements of that already on Lib Dem Voice.

But of course the party doesn’t start from scratch in this respect. The political ideology of the Liberal Democrats draws on the philosophies of two reformist traditions, liberalism and social democracy. Liberalism possesses an immensely rich history, stretching back over more than three hundred years. Social democracy is a label that has meant very different things over the last hundred years and more, but between them these traditions possess a distinctive approach to concepts such as freedom, equality and social justice.

As a concise guide to the key strands of political thought and ideas underlying Liberal Democrat beliefs, the Liberal Democrat History Group has published a new booklet, Liberalism: The ideas that Built the Liberal Democrats. 

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Paul Walter

++Conference passes “One member one vote” for party elections and conference votes

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 6:49 pm

Hallejujah!

We have got there! We have at last completed our arduous journey over mountain, through thick jungle and through crocodile infested waters. We have at last arrived in the Elysian Fields!

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Paul Walter

“Scrapping Trident” debate – what conference voted for today

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 6:46 pm

Here follows the text of the motion passed by conference this afternoon at the end of the debate entitled “Scrapping Trident” on the agenda.

I have shown the original motion in normal text with the original line numbers, and lines through the text which was deleted by conference. In italics I have shown the text inserted by virtue of conference voting for Amendment 1:

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News Meerkat

++Big conference decision: Amendment 1 to “Scrapping Trident” motion is carried after a card count

By News Meerkat | Mon 21st September 2015 - 5:15 pm

Conference voted in favour of amendment 1 to the “Scrapping Trident” motion this afternoon.

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NewsHound

Jo Swinson ‘mistaken for secretary’ by government official

By NewsHound | Mon 21st September 2015 - 5:02 pm

Jo Swinson Opening Glasgow ConferenceThe BBC reports:

Former minister Jo Swinson has spoken of the “delicious” moment she was mistaken for a secretary by a senior government official.

The ex-Lib Dem MP, an equalities minister in the coalition government, was speaking about the difficulties faced by women in the workplace.

She said the official was mortified when he realised his mistake.
She also revealed that her then boss Vince Cable skipped a diversity training seminar she had set up.

Ms Swinson said she had set up a session for business department ministers and senior civil servants on avoiding “unconscious bias” in the workplace but that she was “the only minister that turned up”.

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Joe Otten

Jeremy Corbyn is not just unelectable

By Joe Otten | Mon 21st September 2015 - 3:20 pm

My Sunday at Liberal Democrat Conference seemed to dwell more on Jeremy Corbyn than might be ideal. In the Agenda 2020 session on spelling out our priorities and vision for policy development for the next 5 years, I may have derailed things a little with the following observation.

Corbyn’s election is certainly a challenge to liberal economics. If anybody else – ourselves included – had suggested price controls, printing money, and offering easy alternatives to austerity that (like Syriza) you can’t deliver, they would not only be seen to be wrong, but thought to be highly cynical, grubbing around for votes with populist messages that can’t be delivered or in the knowledge that they would do more harm than good.

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Paul Walter

VIDEO: Tim Farron’s very impressive debut Question & Answer session at conference in full

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 2:00 pm

Please click below to see the whole of Tim Farron’s Question and Answer session at conference yesterday. Tim was in extremely impressive form for his first such session – which can be extremely demanding for a party leader. He was relaxed, confident, funny where necessary and very passionate.

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Paul Walter

Foreign affairs – facing up to failure

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 1:00 pm

20th Sep 2015 conference LDV fringeLiberal Democrat Voice hosted a very stimulating conference fringe meeting yesterday evening. Our editor, Caron Lindsay chaired the session discussing how we forge a liberal foreign policy in these challenging times. The panel consisted of Hannah Bettsworth, Julie Smith, William Wallace and Nick Tyrone. My photo above shows the panel while Hannah was speaking.

Thank you to the panel for each providing extraordinaryly thought-provoking inputs. Thank you also to the representatives who came along and asked excellent questions or made superb points.

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The Voice

IN FULL: Nick Clegg’s speech to conference

By The Voice | Mon 21st September 2015 - 12:40 pm

Clegg conference 2015Here is the speech Nick Clegg is currently delivering at conference:

On the morning after I resigned as Leader of our party in the wake of that devastating election result, I decided to buy… a phone.

Rather than moping at home I thought I’d cheer myself up by buying some new gadgets.

In any event, I half expected some grim faced official from the Home Office to turn up and demand my security vetted Blackberry back at any minute.

So, I figured, what better way to prepare for life out of Government than getting my own phone?

So off I went with my eldest boy, Antonio, to the nearest high street.

I was braced, as you can perhaps imagine, for lots of awkward sideways glances from other shoppers.

After all, we’d just been subject to a very public drubbing at the hands of the country’s voters.

Instead, something quite unexpected happened: person after person came up to me to say how sorry they were, how undeserved they thought the election result was, how unfairly they thought we’d been treated.

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Paul Walter

A welcome rebalancing of the media/members ratio at conference

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 11:30 am

Tim Farron 2015 bournemouth

Tim Farron, with Rosie Farron, awaits the cue to deliver his first conference speech as leader at Saturday’s night conference rally.Photo by Paul Walter.

Pssst. Let me tell you a little secret which you may not have noticed if you haven’t attended Lib Dem conferences. As we went through the coalition years, the numbers of members attending conference dwindled. No doubt someone is going to dispute this and quote detailed numbers. But it was pretty obvious and, towards the end, feintly embarrassing.

While the numbers of members attending conference went down, the numbers of media, police, security guards and sycophantic business people buzzing around soared.

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The Voice

Conference Extras open thread: It’s Europe Day and Nick Clegg hits the fringe

By The Voice | Mon 21st September 2015 - 10:30 am

We hope you’ve spotted the open thread on the action taking place in the main auditorium today. In comparison, this thread is for you to talk about fringe meetings, the exhibition and all the other things going on around the main business.

What is going on today?

After Vince’s foray into the fringe yesterday, it’s Nick Clegg’s turn today. Anyone who stays till the end of the One Member One Vote debate is unlikely to get a seat. He talks to Phil Collins from the Times in the Trouville Hotel at 6:15.  He makes a speech to Conference just before lunch and then goes straight to a fringe meeting on what the EU Referendum will mean for people in work in Bayview 2 in the BIC.

Given his longstanding commitment to EU, it is appropriate that today is heavily focused towards Europe and particularly to getting the Lib Dems’ campaign to stay in Europe under way. Tim Farron and Catherine Bearder will be speaking at a fringe meeting at which activists will be urged to throw themselves into recruiting pro EU supporters to help us – benefitting both the cause and the party. Our  Europe campaign website has all you need to know about how to get involved.  There seems to be an emphasis on holding house parties. Let’s just hope that the instructions they give us aren’t as prescriptive as this David Miliband document which was widely mocked. 

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Paul Walter

Three ways to watch conference live

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 10:00 am

There are three ways to watch the Lib Dem conference live:

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The Voice

Conference debates open thread: Monday 21st September

By The Voice | Mon 21st September 2015 - 8:30 am

Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium.  Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow’s instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

So what is happening today at Conference?

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David Grace

Trident and the “doctrine of unripe time”

By David Grace | Mon 21st September 2015 - 7:03 am

In his brilliant book on academic politics “Microcosmographica Academica” , F M Cornford wrote that there was only one argument for doing anything – that it was right. There were, however, many arguments for not doing anything, of which “the doctrine of unripe time” is one of the most common. This applies perfectly to the Liberal Democrat Conference debate on Trident. On the surface, the question seems simple – replace Trident or scrap Trident – but the waters have been muddied by an amendment from Baroness Jolly which says neither. It says we should set up another working group to consider options.

Over the last eight years conference has debated Trident no less than five times, sometimes alone and sometimes as part of a portmanteau motion. There have been two working groups which have taken evidence from senior civil servants, generals, academics and defence think tanks. In addition Ming Campbell conducted a review of options before we went into coalition. Finally in government we forced an official review of options by defence specialists. What can any party group possibly learn that will add to all that? What indeed! There is nothing new to learn. It’s just the “doctrine of unripe time” again. There is no reason whatsoever to kick this can down the road. There is a very good reason to make our minds up now. Some time in 2016 parliament will vote on the “Main Gate” decision committing over £100 billion pounds to Trident’s successor. Our working group would probably report back after that decision and all its regurgitation of old information would be utterly irrelevant.

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Paul Walter

VIDEO: Last night’s conference rally in full

By Paul Walter | Sun 20th September 2015 - 3:02 pm

Click below to see last night’s “standing room only” conference rally.

The sequence of speakers is:

  • Party President Sal Brinton (don’t worry – the image of Sal appears after a bit)
  • New member, Amy Stuart, from Bristol
  • London Mayoral candidate, Caroline Pidgeon
  • New member Zack Polanski
  • London International Gospel Choir
  • Tim Pickstone
  • Party leader Tim Farron
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Paul Walter

New “Policy Pitch” opportunity hits conference

By Paul Walter | Sun 20th September 2015 - 1:30 pm

imageA new format hit conference yesterday. At the end of Saturday’s session, we had a “Policy Pitch” section. This is a new idea whereby members submit ideas to the conference commitee and three of those ideas are accepted for discussion at the conference.

The chosen members gave a short speech outlining their policy proposal. Then they sat down in a comfy chair on stage with three “assessors”, who were: Julie Smith, Jeremy Hargreaves and Willie Rennie. There was then a little interviewing of each proposer from the three assessors.

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Paul Walter

‘Going to the south coast once a year and putting your hand up should not be the only way to contribute to party policy making’

By Paul Walter | Sun 20th September 2015 - 12:00 pm

Autumn 2012 conference - Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats
The quote above came from Lorna Dupré at the policy making process consultation

On Saturday morning, conference got off to a flying start with a consultative session on the party’s policy-making process. This followed the publication of this document.

The session was organised and led by the Federal Policy Committee, which is the leading body for policy making in the party. Tim Farron is the chair of this committee.

The session was chaired by Julie Smith, with Gareth Epps and Jeremy Hargreaves heavily involved in facilitating the discussion. Duncan Brack also spoke.

These “consultative sessions” are, I think, an exciting part of conference. They allow members to input ideas into the formation of processes and policy before working groups have started to write a formal motion for conference. So, it is an excellent way for members to influence things.

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Recent Comments

  • John B Grout
    Excellent piece, Josh. As for seeking others' thoughts on the pitch, here are mine: Labour and the Greens want to do things for you, the Conservatives and R...
  • David Evans
    It's an interesting article, which gives us more to think about, but when it ends with "Government and politics can strive toward this platform ... giving ind...
  • Neil Sandison
    This one of a series of articles recently published in the Liberal Democrat Voice that defines our social liberal values . Frequently the hot house of Westminst...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    This is the right problem to be working on, and I think the answer may be less about the words than about the moments. In my experience people learn what we sta...
  • Simon Robinson
    It's good to have an MP putting herself forward for this. The manifesto seems a bit vague though. All good thoughts and nothing you can really disagree with, b...