The Lib Dem conference starts in Brighton on the Saturday 14th September.
Not in the conference programme – because conference hasn’t started yet – is the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) pre-conference dinner on the Friday evening, 13th September. Details are on our website: Pre-conference dinner 2024 – Social Liberal Forum.
If you have decided to arrive in Brighton on the Friday so that you can attend conference when it opens on Saturday at 9am, then you might want to consider going along. But you need to book around now (the early bird rate expires on the 1st September). You can’t turn up on the day without pre-booking. Already over 50 people have booked – this is a great way to start making new friends before conference starts.
Ever since the end of the Coalition government in 2015 it has seemed like the Liberal Democrat party has been on a life support system, with boundary changes threatening to defeat the few MPs we did manage to get elected on roughly 10% of the vote.
Today with 72 MPs, plus the Alliance MP (Sorcha Eastwood), the Liberal Democrats has a great opportunity to become a major force again in British politics. Can they do it? How would they do it? The next general election is a long way off and so this is a key moment for the Liberal Democrats as a political party to decide what kind of a party it wants to be so that it can appeal to more voters with our liberal values.
We are delighted to announce that we have 3 new and up and coming Lib Dem MPs who will give us their ideas about how we move forward; Josh Babarinde, MP for Eastbourne, Victoria Collins, MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, and Brian Mathews, MP for Melksham and Devizes.
* Geoff Payne is a member of the SLF council
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7 Comments
I thought the Social Liberal Forum was on life support! The website and social media haven’t been updated for ages. I am still waiting for a response to an email I sent months ago.
There is a space for a Social Liberal voice in the party and wider society. However at present the SLF isn’t providing it.
Hi David, thank you for your feedback.
I cannot comment on your missing message. However we are very much alive and kicking, not only are we organising this pre-conference dinner which from the number of people booked is already is about to have our biggest ever attendence, we also have 3 fringe meetings at the Brighton conference.
We were about to have a very successful SLF conference last month but because of the general election we had to cancel it. We organised a very successful debate at the National Liberal Club which was live streamed for wider access between Sarah Olney MP and Will Hutton.
With a greatly expanded Parliamentary party we now have many more Lib Dem MPs supporting the SLF.
We believe we have exciting times ahead.
Sounds as if there might be a coms issue here. It happens. A lot.
@Geoffrey Payne
That all sounds really promising. It would be great to see the website and social media updated as well.
Politics as we know it has taken a real change.
Geoffrey
Why has this been booked in a wheelchair inaccessible venue? There are people, like me, in a wheelchair, who could have gone to this function, and had a good time but for the fact that the venue is inaccessible for us.
How inaccessible is it? Is there just one or two steps to get in which can easily be resolved by a portable ramp? (I can bring my own if need be). Or is it on the 1st Floor, up a flight of steps, with no lift, therefore completely inaccessible to me?
Please could you let me know or find out from the venue, and particularly find out if they’ve got a portable ramp to get me in. These places should do as it is part of the reasonable adjustments venues like this are required to provide under the Equalities Act.
@RichardWhelan. It is on our list of criteria and we really wanted to find a place that is wheelchair accessible. I will double check with the venue about your point about the equalities act and whether they can make arrangements. There are 36 steps to the third floor.
An explanation of why this happened is on our website. I will reproduce it here;
Why no Wheelchair access?
Wheelchair access is one of the criteria we try and meet when we organise our events. We consider it a top priority.
We apologise for being unable to fulfil this requirement for this event.
What we found in Brighton is that the hotel venues do have wheelchair access but were too expensive.
The restaurants are affordable but do not have wheelchair access.
So we went for the affordable option.
Another problem we had was that we only had a short time to organise this event. Just before the general election was called, Lib Dem conference in Brighton was cancelled.
It was only after the general election took place that we found out that the conference was back on again and we could start organising this event.
Next time we come to Brighton we will have more time to organise this event and more time to find the ideal venue with wheelchair access.