The Social Liberal Forum is having its annual conference today with the theme of Rebooting Liberalism. It’s being held at the Amnesty HQ in London, so at this point, after the awful news this week about surveillance, we should probably say that we hope our friends at GCHQ enjoy the proceedings. The event sold out some weeks ago. Our own Mary Reid has been very involved in the organisation. SLF Conference is always lively, interesting and really makes you think.

The agenda looks brilliant.

Claire Tyler will give the William Beveridge Memorial Lecture. Julian Huppert and Bridget Fox will revisit Liberty,  Prateek Buch and Naomi Smith will tackle Equality, and Cllr Liz Green will focus on Community with Michael Meadowcroft.  Chris Nicholson will be drawing on his experience as a SpAd in a session on Reforming Government with Daisy Cooper, Mark Pack and Party President Sal Brinton will be asking ‘How do we rebuild the Liberal Democrats?’, while David Howarth will discuss political pluralism with Sue Gossfrom Compass and academic Tom Spencer. 

In addition, people attending the conference will be voting in advance on the topics for four round table discussions, there will be fringe meeting on Positive Money plus a Youth meet-up.

The day will conclude with a Leadership Hustings with Tim Farron and Norman Lamb.

I am very sad not to be there, but I have asked everyone to tweet loads so I can keep an eye on what’s going on, and I’ll put up a selection of the most interesting tweets throughout the day.

You can also watch the live stream which is a bit erratic, but great to have:

I would probably have embarrassed myself by bawling during the one minute applause for Charles Kennedy – and there’s already news of a new award in his memory. Here’s a selection of the early tweets:

#slfconf starting off with introduction by Naomi Smith and announcement of new award in memory of Charles Kennedy. pic.twitter.com/tQmaPDfaHY

— Nick Barlow (@nickjbarlow) July 4, 2015

@emld Meeting an Amnesty Wall prior 2 possibly a ‘heated’ fringe Liberating our Economy’ @PositiveMoneyUK #slfconf pic.twitter.com/xm5Sob631Z

— MzLashmore (@MzLashmore) July 4, 2015

Best wishes to #slfconf – so sorry that laryngitis means I can’t speak. Cause of liberty is safe in hands of @julianhuppert @KellyMarieLD

— Bridget Fox (@BridgetFox) July 4, 2015

 

Claire Tyler’s Beveridge Lecture – Wellbeing, a modern take on Beveridge

Baroness Claire Tyler delivers the 2015 William Beveridge Memorial Lecture, at the @soclibforum Conference. #SLFConf pic.twitter.com/8bI8l3Z90K

— Mathew Hulbert (@HulbertMathew) July 4, 2015

We need to be bolder in tackling the myth of deserving rich and undeserving poor – Claire Tyler #slfconf

— Mark Blackburn (@markblackburn) July 4, 2015

Claire Tyler quotes Bobby Kennedy: ''GDP measures everything…except what makes life worthwhile.'' Hear Hear! #SLFConf #LibDems

— Mathew Hulbert (@HulbertMathew) July 4, 2015

"Let's become the party that really champions the living wage." #slfconf

— Katherine Bavage (@Bavage) July 4, 2015

Round of applause for Claire Tyler suggestion that we should look at NI, not income tax allowance, to help poorest… #slfconf

— Tom King (@KingOfTwickers) July 4, 2015

Baroness Claire Tyler: Businesses shd publish ratio between highest & lowest paid, #LibDems should look at costs of NI to low paid #slfconf

— Elisabeth Wilson (@elis_wilson) July 4, 2015

"We must be honest about where we got things horribly wrong…the bedroom tax policy should never have seen the light of day." #slfconf

— Katherine Bavage (@Bavage) July 4, 2015

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social