One of the best things about Lib Dem Conference is the Leader’s question and answer session. Members attending will be able to question Vince on anything they like. That will not have quite the same novelty value given that he’s just done about 14 of these around the country over the last month or so, but, still, it’s a good opportunity for the leader to have a bit of interaction with party members.
There is a catch, though. You have to submit your questions in advance – by this coming Monday (4th September) at 1pm. If it’s picked, you will get a follow-up that he won’t know about.
It’s not just Vince you can question. A hugely important part of accountability in this party is being able to scrutinise the party committees. If you want to put down a question to any of the Federal Committees or the Parliamentary parties, it has to be done by the same deadline. You will also get a follow-up and your question will be published in Conference Extra.
And don’t forget that if you want to amend any motions, you need to find a local party, or 10 members, or an SAO like Lib Dem Women or Young Liberals to support it and get it in by the same time.
You can find out more about doing all those things here.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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5 Comments
I do not agree with having a deadline for questions 2 weeks before the conference. It gives the person answering too much time to prepare. Yes, we can ask supplementary questions on the day, but it gives answerers time to think of what supplementary questions might be asked. Charles Kennedy (who introduced this feature) was not given this leeway, but he coped very well.
Also, the subject of a question may come up after the deadline that cannot be tabled, and what may be relevant and topical on 4th September may not be so by the time of conference.
A very simple question, how do we get our votes back? The Weston Super Mare result shows far we have fallen behind in the West Country and just how very , very well Labour is doing.
Have we a viable and realistic plan?
@ theakes. No not yet.
To respond to Andrew Toye’s point, why don’t you want the person answering the question to have time to think about it? It makes for better answers. In any case, for the leader Q&As, assuming FCC keeps the same format they’ve used for Nick’s and Tim’s Q&A sessions, it’s not only the original questioner who will get to ask a supplementary – the chair will also call two or three questions from the hall on roughly the same subject as the original question.
And just in case anyone’s still reading this – in fact you can submit questions to Vince’s Q&A at conference, up until 1250 on the Sunday.