Tag Archives: spring conference 2017

The emergency motion up for discussion first thing this morning will have been decided by ballot of Conference goers. It’s likely that most people will be pretty bleary-eyed by this stage – especially those who have been at the Glee Club until stupid o’clock.

The main potential flashpoint of today is the debate on faith schools. This is another of those issues where liberal principles can lead you to either strongly held viewpoint. Conference will be offered three options on the way forward. You can read the arguments on both sides here and here.

The highlight of course is Tim Farron’s speech. It will be his pitch not to Lib Dem members, but to everyone who believes that the Government is on the wrong course on Brexit, to join us in our fight.

Here’s the full timetable.

The Saturday of Spring Conference is very busy, with a packed training programme and fringe as well as debates in the hall. Don’t forget to grab your daily bulletin and make sure that you vote for the emergency motion you want to see debated by lunchtime.

The party will be talking about Brexit but because the situation was so fluid, the motion will only be published when we get to Conference as to do so before could have rendered it out of date.

The most controversial debate of the day will be on nuclear weapons. The policy paper produced by the Working Group recommends maintaining a nuclear deterrent while aiming for a global reduction in nuclear weapons. The arguments in favour of the motion and in favour of having no nuclear deterrent have been set out on this site  here by Tim Farron and here by David Grace respectively.

There’s a huge variety of fringe meetings. Some highlights are below.

Here is the full timetable for the day:

09.00–09.10: Opening of conference by Baroness Brinton
09.10–09.30: Report of Federal Conference Committee
Report of Federal Policy Committee
09.30–10.30: Policy Motion: A rational approach to harm reduction (Sex work policy paper)
10.30–11.15: Policy Motion: Tackling overcrowding in the prison system
11.15–11.35: Speech by Lynne Featherstone
11.35–12.40: Emergency motion or topical issue: Britain and the EU

12:40-14:20: Lunchtime fringe

As you read this, Liberal Democrats will be arriving in York. I’ll be just about to head to lunch with some friends in a place called Sutlers. Never been there before, but anywhere that boasts of having 100 gins is good by me.

Conference kicks off at 3 with various consultation sessions. These are an important part of our policy making process. The Federal Policy Committee sets up working groups to look at various subjects. They take evidence from experts and consult members. Once they have done that, they draw their conclusions into a final paper which is debated by the full conference. This Spring’s consultations are:

15.00–17.30 21st Century Economy
Education
Rural Communities

16.30–18.15 Britain in the World

Then there’s a civic drinks reception at 5:15 and the Conference rally at 6:30.