Tag Archives: birmingham

Probe into “undue spiritual influence” in Birmingham election

 

An election petition has been launched into the May 2015 local elections in Birmingham. I want to be clear about a few things at the outset.

These proceedings are all about principles of public importance and the protection of democratic elections. It is about preventing future recurrence of kinship voting swaying bloc votes in favour of a political party. It is about the corrupt practice of providing fertile battleground for Pakistani political parties to flex their muscle during local British elections. It is about undue spiritual influence installing fear in the minds of the voter that if they don’t vote the party endorsed by the spiritual leader, punishment awaits them in the afterlife. It is about the illegal practice of segregation of men and women at political rally in contravention of the Equality Act 2010. These practices have no place in modern politics and for any political party to turn a blind eye to such practices amounts to selling values for votes.

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Conference – not just for conference delegates

Two weeks from now, the Lib Dems’ spring conference will all be over and delegates will be back home on the ground in their constituencies.

The new location of Birmingham for our conference brings a whole host of opportunities to Lib Dem members who live in parts of the country previously untouched by conference season.

Training

The most important of these is that you do not need to be a delegate to benefit from party training and fringe sessions held away from the main venue.  The party is running a full day of  training in Birmingham on Saturday, 13th March – and these …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged | 3 Comments

Bournemouth getting ready to welcome #ldconf

A piece in the Bournemouth Echo underlines just how important party conferences are to the resort’s economy – and just how huge an event conference is, even for the smallest of the three main parties:

It is estimated the event could boost the resort economy by £6.5 million, as delegates spend money in hotels, bars, restaurants and shops.

“That’s really working on the basis of about 6,000 delegates staying for an average of four nights,” said Peter Gunn, director of the BIC and Pavilion.

A few seconds with a calculator and those figures suggests delegates will be spending an average of £270 …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged , , and | 4 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Laurence Cox
    @Mel Borthwaite, This is essentially the same criticism I made of GBI before the conference in response to Kevin Langford's article in LDV https://www.li...
  • Jason Connor
    Does financial incentives mean bribes? I hope not. Cycling units have been installed on council estates and blocks near me and are barely used. Perhaps because ...
  • Sam Barratt
    It is great to read your experience Luke! I hope it encourages those who are able to consider donating to the access fund to do so (https://libdems.secure.force...
  • Thomas Prince
    @Mark Johnston - I think that Guardian article is a good reflection of the positives and negatives of the speech. Some good lines; some topics tackled; but litt...
  • Thomas Prince
    @James Belchamber: I've written an alternative speech that doesn't shy away from Europe and includes Swinson's most famous slogan (epitaph?). But I think the to...