Tag Archives: english council

Simon McGrath

Time to reform the English Party

By Simon McGrath | Fri 4th December 2020 - 10:15 am

At the English Council tomorrow (Saturday 5th Dec) Callum Robertson (incoming joint Chair of the Young Liberals ) and I will be proposing a motion which seeks some substantial changes in the way the English Party is run.

That sentence probably prompts questions among LDV readers: what is the English Council and how does it relate to the rest of the Party?

In most of the Party – local associations, regional parties and the Scots and Welsh State parties and the Federal Party the governance structure is based on One Member One Vote, but the English Party has a system of indirect elections. The way it works is that at the same time as regional elections people elect members from that region of the English Council – a group of 150 people (which also include reps of the Young Liberals) which meets twice a year.

The functions of the English Council are set out in the Constitution (Section 5 and 6) but it is the sovereign body of the Party in England (though it has agreed that policy is dealt with by the Federal Conference).

So how well does this work? The vast majority of party members in England seem unaware of this structure. In many cases there is no contest for members of the English Council and some regions have not appointed their full quota of members.

The time has come for change. I realised when trying to explain the structure of the English Party to a newish member who asked how people are elected that I simply could not justify the way we currently work. The  motion has two parts:

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Posted in Op-eds | 31 Comments
Caron Lindsay

A big day of internal Lib Demmery ahead

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 21st May 2016 - 8:00 am

So, we’ve not even had a proper weekend off since the election. Two weeks ago we were all knackered and had loads of clearing up to do. Last week we were all on INtogether stalls. Now, this Saturday, our minds turn to future party strategy across Britain.

In Scotland, the party executive gathers for the first time since achieving a better result than most of us expected. We have a lot to chew over in terms of future strategy and we’re taking a day to do it. We’re having to follow Willie to North East Fife where he’ll spend some time with us before heading off to a local agricultural show.

In England, English Council meets in London.

However, the biggest and most immediate decision will be taken by the Welsh Liberal Democrats at a special conference in Powys. They will be debating whether Kirsty Williams should take up a seat in the Welsh Cabinet as Education Secretary.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 7 Comments
Andy Strange

English Council, 15 June – our man in Luton reports…

By Andy Strange | Wed 26th June 2013 - 9:12 am

This is a report of the meeting of the Liberal Democrats English Council, held on Saturday at University College London.

The English Council is the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England and meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party.

Speech from Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg at English Council - 15 June 2013The day started with a speech from the Deputy Prime Minister. Before heading off to chair meetings at the G8, Nick Clegg had stopped into University College London to give a message of optimism to …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Andy Strange

What’s on the agenda for English Council?

By Andy Strange | Fri 7th June 2013 - 8:55 am

There will be a meeting of the Liberal Democrat’s English Council on Saturday 15th June at University College London.

The English Council is the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England. It meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party.

Alongside the usual reports from officers and representatives of the English Party on other party bodies, the main business of the meeting will be to discuss the results of the recent local elections and think ahead to next year’s European election.

There will also be a number of minor constitutional amendments to be approved. These are:

* An …

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Posted in News | 2 Comments
Andy Strange

Reporting back from English Council’s 17 November meeting

By Andy Strange | Tue 20th November 2012 - 3:29 pm

This is a report of the meeting of the Liberal Democrat’s English Council held last Saturday (17th November 2012) at University College London.

The English Council is the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England and meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party.

Review of Police and Crime Commissioner elections campaign

The main topic of discussion at this meeting was how the English Party should respond to the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

There was general agreement that the way the Party had handled the run up to these elections had been, shall we say, less than …

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Posted in News | 18 Comments
Andy Strange

What’s on the agenda of the English Council’s meeting on 17 November…

By Andy Strange | Fri 9th November 2012 - 3:22 pm

There will be a meeting of the Liberal Democrat’s English Council this coming Saturday (17th November) at University College London.

The English Council is the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England, meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party.

Alongside the usual reports from officers and representatives of the English Party on other party bodies, and a keynote speech from Stephen Lloyd the MP for Eastbourne, I think there are four items of note on the agenda.

Finances of the English Party

This meeting sees the annual decisions on the finances of the English Party being taken. …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Andy Strange

Reporting back from the English Council

By Andy Strange | Thu 28th June 2012 - 1:58 pm

The English Council, the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England, meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party. The first of its meetings for 2012 took place at University College London last Saturday.

The meeting was brisk and business like — it ran a little over time but not unreasonably so — and had something of a studious atmosphere. This might have had something to do with the impressive environment of the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 2 Comments
Andy Strange

Changes to your local party boundaries are coming

By Andy Strange | Sun 3rd June 2012 - 11:25 am

Next year all Liberal Democrats in England are going to have to get used to new local parties. The coalition government’s plans to change the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies across the UK, assuming they get passed into law, will have implications for how we organise ourselves at a local level.

Traditionally Liberal Democrat local parties have been organised on a constituency basis. The local party would cover one or more parliamentary constituency. More recently a change was made to allow local parties in London to be based on borough boundaries, but for the rest of England local parties remained tied …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | 18 Comments
Andy Strange

What does the English Council do?

By Andy Strange | Tue 22nd May 2012 - 2:52 pm

Liberal Democrats who want to understand how the party runs can easily become confused by the range of offices, executives, committees, subcommittees and working groups that they encounter. Some have grand sounding names and are made up of “the great and the good”. Others are little heard of with powers unknown. One of the most obscure is probably the English Council.

I confess to being a bit of a nerd when it comes to matters of party organisation, but even I have found myself asking – “what on earth does English Council do?”

Last year, through my regional party, I was elected …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | 13 Comments

Opinion: Why Liberal Youth is worth funding

By Tom Wood | Fri 25th November 2011 - 4:53 pm

On Saturday morning the English Council will debate their budget for the year ahead which, for the first time in at least ten years, will not include a rebate for Liberal Youth membership.
 
The English party is the Youth party’s single largest source of funding. Immediately cutting off this funding with such short notice will leave our organisations unable to meet its most basic operating costs and permanently cripple our youth party.
 
I know, like everyone else, these are tough times financially for our party; however Liberal Youth performs a vital role for young people and for the party

…

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Mark Valladares

If English Council meets and nobody knows, did it really meet?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 5th July 2010 - 2:20 pm

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, but whilst most people heading for London were on their way to Pride, or Lords for the cricket, or Wimbledon for the tennis, a few dozen hardy Liberal Democrats were heading towards the St Alban’s Centre near Chancery Lane station for the first of 2010’s two meetings of English Council.

Unusually, the first item on the agenda was a speech by the Party President, Ros Scott, who talked about the challenges facing the Party in the weeks, months and years ahead, as well as some of the work being done at Federal level to address …

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
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