This weekend I had the pleasure of chairing a debate for the East of England Conference. Before the day began I had trepidation about the emergency motions.
Normally emergency motions are unusual, if not rare. However this year we faced a choice of Community Hospitals versus Tuition Fees, both controversial, both worthy of debate.
In my heart of hearts I really wanted Tuition Fees to be debated and I knew I had to remain neutral as chair of the session. Although my stance on tuition fees has never been hidden, I have as a parliamentary candidate signed the pledge, I have stood on internal party elections on this issue and I have fought to ensure they remained in the manifesto.
When the returning officer gave me the result of the emergency motions ballot I was not surprised. Votes cast 102, Tuition fees gained 70 votes and community hospitals 32.
The text of the motion was well balanced:
‘Recognising the huge importance of Higher Education for both students and the Regional economy, this Conference supports the Party’s manifesto commitment to phase out tuition fees over the course of six years, and commends Liberal Democrat MPs who have already reaffirmed their commitment to vote against raising fees.
Concerned that the Browne Review’s recommendations and the proposals in the Comprehensive Spending Review lead away from this policy towards higher, not lower, tuition fees, this Conference calls on all MPs in the Region, of whatever Party, to support proposals for higher education funding that are genuinely progressive and do not deter people from going to university.’
The debate looked like it may be quiet as the session began, then the speakers cards appeared. My aide, Mark Valladares (Lady Ros), passed them to me one by one. A sense of foreboding shivered down my spine. One person to speak for the motion, one against.
The session was only due to last 15 minutes, I knew this was tight. Fortunately the session before, on Airports, had under run by 15 minutes so I could extend tuition fees by 10 minutes. The cards kept coming. Among those who spoke were Norman Lamb MP, and PPS to Nick Clegg, (against), Ian Wallace, a member from Cambridge (for), Catherine Smart (proposer of the motion), Andrew Phillips (against) Chancellor of the University of Essex and Baron Phillips of Sudbury.
The debate was well balanced, and I called every card submitted, probably much to the disgust of the Conference Chair as we over-ran!
Whilst the conference pondered times of austerity vs pledges, promises to the electorate vs compromises with our coalition partners, you could feel the room swaying from one side to the other.
The debate finished and I called for the vote. Those for, hands went up. Those against, similar numbers of hands. I leant across to my aide and he said the words I had dreaded from the start of the debate ‘we need to count this’.
Let’s get this straight, we are a democratic party, we do vote on everything. Counted votes are normal at national level, much rarer at regional level. I am not sure when I last attended a regional conference that had a counted vote; on second thoughts I am not sure I ever have.
I quickly with the help of my aide, Mark and two stewards organised a count. I jotted the figures down. Simple arithmetic showed me that it was tight. The votes for the motion 37. The votes against 38.
The motion which supported our MPs (Julian Huppert and Bob Russell) who have already said that they are voting against failed. The motion did not condemn those who will be voting for whatever Government proposes. It was a balanced motion.
As the chair of the session I will always kick myself that I was not in the audience voting, as will many of the others in the coffee area who assumed this motion would pass ‘nem con’.
No-one spoke against our policy but the conference decided that it could not support the motion as set out above. The East of England is probably the only region that has not re-endorsed our manifesto commitment.
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16 Comments
Very interesting sign that party opinion on this, when it’s actually discussed properly, is not nearly as one-sided as some would have us believe.
by i assume 27 must have abstained from the vote?
By contrast I summated the motion at South Central Conference, that if anything was more firmly focused on keeping existing Party policy, and was passed with only 3 votes against of 150-200 in the room. No count needed there.
Similar vote to South Central in Scotland, where the majority against tuition fees was overwhelming.
The East Midlands conference overwhelmingly passed the following motion. The fianl paragraph was added as an ammendment.
Conference deplores the decision of the Business Secretary and of the
Coalition Government to allow tuition fees to rise and calls on the Deputy
Prime Minister and his Liberal Democrat colleagues in the Cabinet to honour
the pledge in the election manifesto of May 2010 to scrap university
tuition fees for all students taking their first degree including those
studying part-time (saving them over £10,000 each) and immediately to scrap
fees for final year students.
Conference also calls upon the Coalition Government to re-examine the
Dearing Report, which identified three beneficiaries of a university
education (the student, the state and business), and to ensure that all
beneficiaries are paying their fair share. In doing this, the Coalition
Government must ensure that graduates and prospective undergraduates,
especially the poorest, are not disadvantaged or dissuaded from achieving
their degree.
I believe South East region, as well as South Central and Scotland as mentioned above, also reaffirmed its support for existing Lib Dem policy and against an increase in fees.
@Matt lots of people in training or drinking coffee as I said 🙁
I wish I had gone.
There is now a clear division in the party. I fear it will split before we get proper PR, and that this is what Clegg, Lamb, et al wanted all along. You can guess who would keep the party’s assets. Social liberals must not give up. Even in this most conservative of regions, with Clegg’s CoS speaking against, we have nearly tied with the leadership. The announcement that fees could be as high as £9000 would surely have won the day had it come before this debate.
Congratulations to East Midlands on their excellent motion.
You’re worried about who gets the tea cosy?
It’s not the Labour party. The Lib Dems don’t really have any assets.
I just wonderd as your post sais
result of the emergency motions ballot I was not surprised. Votes cast 102, Tuition fees gained 70 votes and community hospitals 32.
so i assumed there where 102 people there
Then the votes on the motion where
The votes for the motion 37. The votes against 38. =75
so i assumed 27 decided not to vote.
wonder how they all feel after todays announcement that the cap is 9k
atleast they got Gove to announce this time, rather than chucking vince to the wolves again
Save Our Students!
Northumbria Students’ Union have produced a short video about the current situation in preparation for The National Demo on 10/11/10.
http://youtu.be/dRtEbVJZod8?hd=1 – If you haven’t seen it, watch it!
@Matt Dinnery
http://youtu.be/dRtEbVJZod8?hd=1
That should release that on Itunes, I would buy that tomorrow.
Then use the money raised to lobby government and organise bigger protests 😉
102 is the number of voting reps who took part in the ballot.
@Andrew Suffield: It’s not the Labour party. The Lib Dems don’t really have any assets.
I think you made a typo there – surely that should read “The Lib Dems don’t really have any debts.”? 😉
(At least not on the same scale as the Labour party! And at least we’re solvent.)
Seriously though, this discussion about splitting the party that occasionally crops up is incredibly alarmist…
@matt: As Susan wrote above (and as Catherine Smart e-mailed to Cambridge activists) there were a number of delegates having coffee outside. Some apparently asked “so when is the tuition fees debate?” after it had happened!
I have some small sympathy with them as I almost missed my call to speak in a debate at a Liberal Youth of Sweden conference and had to run to the rostrum and explain the benefits of decentralisation when I was puffing for breath. The other delegates were not impressed…