The Federal Policy Committee is traditionally very busy in the immediate run-up to the summer holiday. That is because of conference deadlines and the need to get everything concluded before August when a lot of people are away.
The most recent meeting of the committee, which came hot on the heels of the last one, was on 13th July 2016. It also happened to be the day that Labour plunged further into disarray following the revelation that Jeremy Corbyn will appear on the ballot paper in their leadership election and, of course, the country had a new Prime Minister foisted upon it.
As we were going through the meeting, government announcements were being about new Cabinet members. We paused several time for a collective intake of breath.
There was a lot to discuss. We did not finish until some time after 9pm.
Membership of the committee
Gareth Epps has resigned from the committee because he has taken a job that is politically restricted. Gareth has been a very active member of FPC for a long time and he will certainly be missed from the committee. We were, however, delighted to welcome Antony Hook as his replacement.
Education Working Group
The committee agreed the chairs, membership, and remits of three new working groups. Each of those groups was recommended by the Agenda 2020 exercise.
The first of these was education. The remit requires the group to identify proposals for new policy in Education in England. The group is particularly to be directed to identify policies which could be strong campaigning issues within education, reinforcing our overall liberal vision of creating opportunity for everyone regardless of background. The group is also expected to consider and address Liberal Democrat principles on diversity and equalities in developing their proposals. It will deal with the overall principles of education, Early Years, funding, structures, academies, governors, standards and inspections, quality, teacher recruitment, closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, school and the world of work, Further Education and adult education. It will not deal with Higher Education.
The chair is to be Lucy Nethsingha. The membership of the group was appointed. It is fair to say that there was very strong competition for places. In fact, we had over 830 applications for the working groups.
Rural Communities Working Group
This is the second new working group that was considered. Its remit is to produce proposals on how to grow the rural economy, protect local services, and manage sustainable agriculture and the rural environment, reinforcing our overall liberal vision of creating opportunity for everyone regardless of background. Again, the group is particularly directed to identify strong campaigning issues for use in rural communities and it is expected to consider and address Liberal Democrat principles on diversity and equalities in developing their proposals.
It will specifically deal with the changing nature of rural jobs, the High Street, service provision, affordable housing, the needs of very remote areas, environmental issues such as flooding, forestry and diversification, and food security, agriculture and genetically modified food.
The chair of the group is to be Heather Kidd and the Vice-Chair will be Peter Fane.
21st Century Economy Working Group
This group will consider economic policy. Its remit is to produce policies for promoting a more dynamic, innovative and sustainable economy, reinforcing our overall liberal vision of creating opportunity for everyone regardless of background and challenging existing concentrations of power within the economy. Again, it needs to consider strong campaigning themes and equality and diversity.
Particular areas for it to address are the overall objectives of economic and industrial policy, the impact of technology, raising productivity levels, innovation and the link between business and academic research, investment in infrastructure, a number of sector specific questions, skills, automation and jobs, flexible working and the work- life balance, diversity in entrepreneurship and resource efficiency.
Julia Goldsworthy and Mike Tuffrey are to be the co-chairs.
Agenda 2020
As I have set out before, this working group has a remit that requires it to analyse the challenges facing the country at present, identify a liberal response to them and finally to set out a policy development programme that will allow the party to meet those various challenges.
The final paper, as amended post the Brexit vote, was presented to the committee and finally signed off for conference. You will see the final text on the party website in the conference papers section shortly.
Manifesto Working Group
The committee appointed a group to write the party a manifesto in the event that there was a snap General Election. Dick Newby is to chair that group. The membership was approved and the timetable considered. It is likely that there will be a special meeting of the committee to consider the finalised text and layout in early September. This is an extremely ambitious exercise but it is achievable.
Political Strategy
Tim Farron spent some time talking the committee through his political strategy that he is devising. He went through where he saw the party going forward and what he thought the political priorities were. There was a very long and interesting discussion at the committee. It is not one that I can fully report for obvious reasons. There was no paper and there were no conclusions but it was a very useful agenda item. There were contributions on which policy areas we should be prioritising, the question of the European referendum, and our approach to the other parties.
* Geoff Payne is the Chair of Federal Conference Committee.
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5 Comments
It is hoped that there is a sense of urgency, we must not get bogged down by Lib Dem procedures. A new challenge has appeared, May’s speech, or parts of it, could have ben spoken by Tim Farron, the difference being she has a platform. If she succeeds in her ambition to restore equality our policies will not look as original, if she fails we will have to show how it should be done. She kept clear of Brexit, we need our own view of the terms and demand that the terms are put to the electorate before we finally leave.
We at D66 have a similar 2020 group (around our parliamentary party in the “Tweede Kamer”, our Commons, and our Scientific party department, the Hans van Mierlo Stichting (at party Headquarters),and an agenda going forward towards that year.
In august (next month) we’ll launch our Concept Election Platform for the General Elections expected ultimately March 2017. That also concerns 2020 (the years 2017-2021 to be precise).
When you compare our election platforms,
*) not only do you notice enormous similarities between D66 and LibDems (logical; we’re both died-in-the-wool Social Liberals);
*) but also new LibDem ideas we at D66 didn’t get, and have thus picked up.
I sugest your 2020 group gets into contact with our D66 parliamentary party and our party HQ about our “Agenda 2020”,; and, end of this august, about our Platform.
Bernard Aris, D66 party cadre & activist…
Watching Newsnight yesterday I noticed one of the commentators saying “we haven’t had anyone coming up with a big change in politics like Margaret Thatcher”. Now that 17 million people have voted to destroy the status quo change will be much more acceptable,so I’m excited that Tim is working on a political strategy. I do hope that part of that strategy will be how to help the underdogs created by Thatcher’s cruel regime and subsequent government’s based strongly on our own Liberal principles not Left wing assumptions.
If anyone’s worried that May has got there first, she was talking about people who have mortgages not people who live in social housing. She is going to build more houses in the private sector with no mention of social housing at all.
“to be directed to identify policies which could be strong campaigning issues within education,”
“reinforcing our overall liberal vision of creating opportunity for everyone regardless of background. The group is also expected to consider and address Liberal Democrat principles on diversity and equalities in developing their proposals. It will deal with the overall principles of education, Early Years, funding, structures, academies, governors, standards and inspections, quality, teacher recruitment, closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, school and the world of work, Further Education and adult education”
I imagine that the policies that achieve the good aims in the second block will not really achieve the aims of the first. Best of luck to those working on it, they have their work cut out.
If the education working group is not to deal with Higher Education, then who is???
Regardless of the merits of our 2010 tuition fee policy, politically it was the biggest disaster for our party since WW2. In the 2015 manifesto we had no discernable (to me anyway) policy on university funding whatsoever. Since we now have found an issue that resonates with university students and graduates, we desperately need a tuition fee policy that is also acceptable to them…