Federal Conference Committee met this weekend – unusually at Amnesty HQ in London rather than LDHQ – to set the Agenda for Autumn conference in Brighton.
If you have not yet registered, please don’t forget – conference runs from the 15th to 18th September, and you can sign up at https://www.eventsforce.net/autumnconference2018. Or, if you’d like to take advantage of our new refer-a-friend discounts, see https://www.libdems.org.uk/refer_a_friend
As noted in my reports on Spring conference, the snap election last year delayed progress on several policy papers which have now come through so time pressure was again an issue. This did mean that some good motions that would have fared better had there been more time were dropped early in round one of voting. I should also mention that a Nem Con decision does not mean that no members liked a motion. FCC runs largely according to consensus, where only issues that might be controversial or result in a close vote end up with a formal show of hands. If only one or two people are arguing for/against a motion, it is often not worth pushing it to a vote. Running 63 votes in round one alone would risk the meeting becoming a multi-day epic!
This was also the first agenda selection with name blind applications. Committee members knew in advance how a motion was validly submitted (E.g. “Cambridge Lib Dems”, “LGBT+ Lib Dems” or “34 party members”) but not the names of drafting contacts, proposers or summators and these were only circulated after the decisions had been made. Although inevitably lobbying meant we knew who was behind some motions, this worked well and we will be having further discussions on if motions can be made more anonymous by changing submitters details to just “2 local parties”, “an SAO” or similar.
All those who submitted motions will now have feedback and we are hoping to have the full agenda out by the start of August. If you would like to submit a Europe motion, amendments or emergency motions, the deadline for that is 1 pm, Monday 3rd September. Amendments for the Europe motion will be possible, but with a very short window for submission. (Likely around three days)
Time allocations below are provisional and were just used to make sure we did not pick too much material, as some small changes are often required to have everything fit sensibly in the slots available.
|
Round One Vote |
Round Two Vote |
Time allocation |
||
|
BUSINESS AND SKILLS |
||||
| Degree accreditation through the workplace |
Redbridge |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Good jobs, better businesses, stronger communities 21st Century Economy policy paper |
FPC |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
75 minutes |
| Repeal of Sunday Trading Laws |
39 members |
NO (1 Yes vote) |
||
|
COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT |
||||
| An affordable, secure home for all |
10 members |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
60 minutes |
| Ending Private Rental Discrimination against people on Benefits |
10 members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Homelessness – Safety and Justice for All |
Young Liberals |
NO Nem Con |
||
| House Building – An End to Urban Containment |
Young Liberals |
NO Nem Con |
||
| The Leasehold Scandal |
Eddisbury and Weaver Vale |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Power for People and Communities (Policy Paper) |
FPC |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
75 minutes |
|
CRIME, JUSTICE, EQUALITIES, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES |
||||
| Domestic Abuse |
13 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Ending Discrimination in Mental Health Detention |
Beaconsfield |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
60 minutes |
| Establishing Real Freedom of Choice |
Lib Dem Women |
YES Nem Con |
YES (1 No vote) |
75 minutes |
| Freedom of Choice on Abortion |
Young Liberals |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Extending end-of-life choices |
11 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Safe alcohol use, Reduction of the legal drinking age |
10 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT |
||||
| Internet blocking by public libraries |
12 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
ECONOMY AND TAX |
||||
| Closing tax loop-holes – promoting equity |
St Ives |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Promoting a fairer distribution of wealth |
11 party members |
YES Nem Con |
YES (1 no vote) |
60 minutes |
| Taxing Land, not Investment |
13 party members |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
45 minutes |
| The rehabilitation of Taxation |
Calderdale |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Fairer Foreign Exchange |
31 party members |
NO (3 Yes votes) |
||
| Royal Bank of Scotland Share Sale |
Mid Suffolk |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
EDUCATION AND FAMILIES |
||||
| Help for non-speaking children |
13 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS |
||||
| Action on Plastics Pollutions |
15 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Break Free From Plastics |
24 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Plastic pollution and UN Sustainable Development Goals |
Chetenham |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
45 minutes |
| Plastic pollution and UN Sustainable Development Goals |
Gloucester |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Reducing the use of plastic water bottles |
Bexhill and Battle |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Single use plastic and sustainable packaging |
10 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Game bird cages |
12 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Improving Animal Welfare |
10 party members |
YES Nem Con |
YES (7/5 in favour) |
45 minutes |
| United Against Food Poverty |
355 party members |
NO (4 Yes votes) |
||
|
EUROPE |
||||
|
As Europe motions become rapidly out of date, FCC decided to defer selection until the emergency motions deadline. 60 minutes have been allocated for this debate. |
||||
| EU citizens right to vote |
16 party members |
|||
| Stopping Brexit |
13 party members |
|||
|
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE |
||||
| Cutting the roots of lifelong disadvantage by prevention of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) |
35 party members |
YES Nem Con |
NO (2 Yes votes) |
|
| Fighting Childhood Obesity |
ALDC |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Preventing drug-related death: Leading the world in harm reduction |
Haringey |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Revision of Liberal Democrat Party’s Policy for Drug Law Reform |
Taunton Deane |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Supporting our NHS |
St Ives |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
INTERNATIONAL AND DEFENCE |
||||
| Britain at the Heart of a Changing World (Policy Paper) |
FPC |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
75 minutes |
| Sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons |
157 party members |
NO (3 Yes votes) |
||
| Embracing the Sustainable Development Goals |
17 party members |
NO (2 Yes votes) |
||
| Towards a peaceful future for the Land between the River & the Sea |
26 party members |
NO (2 Yes votes) |
||
|
MIGRATION |
||||
| Migration: A fair deal for everyone (Policy Paper) |
FPC |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
90 minutes |
| Removing financial obstacles to Naturalisation |
Hammersmith and Fulham |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Righting wrongs: Restoring the Rights of the Windrush Generation |
19 party members |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
45 minutes |
|
POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM |
||||
| Parliamentary Democracy |
Calderdale |
NO Nem Con |
||
| True Universal Suffrage: Votes for Prisoners |
Young Liberals |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
TRANSPORT |
||||
| Improving public transport |
Calderdale |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
WORK, SOCIAL SECURITY AND PENSIONS |
||||
| Ending Relative Poverty in the UK Motion |
Basingstoke and Deane |
NO Nem Con |
||
| The Inequalities Facing Young People in the Workplace and the Welfare System |
Young Liberals |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Towards Income Security For All |
22 party members |
YES (6/5 in favour) |
NO (3 Yes votes) |
|
| Universal credit |
Canterbury and Coastal |
NO Nem Con |
||
|
BUSINESS MOTIONS |
||||
| Alderdice Actions |
Federal Board |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
45 minutes |
| General Election Review Process |
19 party members |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Green Campaigning – Local and National Elections |
Newark and Sherwood |
NO Nem Con |
||
| Membership subscriptions and federal levy |
Federal Board |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
30 minutes |
| Recognition of Specified Associated Organisations and Associated Organisations |
Federal Board |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
20 minutes |
| Reforming our Party’s Disciplinary & Complaints Processes |
Federal Board |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
60 minutes |
| Liberal Democrat Priorities for a Better Britain (FPC Themes Paper) |
FPC |
YES Nem Con |
YES Nem Con |
60 minutes |
|
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS |
||||
| Reforming our Party’s Disciplinary & Complaints Processes |
Federal Board |
In order |
Included above |
|
* Zoe O'Connell is Vice Chair of Federal Conference Committee and Vice Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats.
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11 Comments
Aw man, this means I have to write up my “how I voted” blog post…
I’m intrigued by the title Plastic Pollution and UN Sustainable Development Goals. Hats off to whoever has managed to integrate these two issues. When do we see the text?
Plastic pollution is an important issue, though relatively minor in terms of the UK’s contribution and in terms of environmental policy as a whole. It is an unfortunate feature of the environment debate that it lurches from faddish attachment to one issue after another.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are the successor to the Millennium Development Goals which were met a decade early in some cases, due to economic growth and free trade. The SDC’s have been written with a much broader view, with the downside of being much less focussed and measureable, and many are framed in such a way that they have to be satisfied by specific government action (eg having a policy on X) rather than being in danger of being satisfied as a result of progress in general; the latter having been an embarrassment to leftists over the MDCs.
Thanks for this Zoe. Also interested as to when we might expect the full text of these motions to be circulated / made available online.
Disappointing to see ALL the Young Liberals motions fail. May be that they’re all terrible motions but it does make me worry that we may not be reflecting the issues faced by young people.
Depending on why they each failed, should FCC work with the Young Liberals next time to help them make sure that at least some of their motions are accepted and/or find a way to prioritize young people’s issues for at least a small section of the agenda? Would also be a bit worried that issues that might seem important to the YLs might not seem so important to the demographically different FCC – I know you’d all try not to be affected by that but it’s hard to avoid unconscious bias and it’s frustrating to see them all fail.
Also, while the approach sounds sensible I really hope that whichever Brexit motion we end up with is different to the one we’ve debates the last two times, just for variety’s sake…
In response to Laura Gordon’’s comment, I have spoken to the Chair of YL about organising a meeting with members of their Exec and FCC members at conference.
Several people have asked about when the text of the motions will be out. The Agenda is in production now but there is a huge amount of work to collate everything, get it to print and get the web version prepared. We are aiming for very early August on that.
With 6 motions on plastics which presumably had some overlaps is their nothing in place to allow a compositing process where that happens. I appreciate that can by done by amendments but there is a limit to how many can be taken.
I take it “United Against Food Poverty” was the Ashdown prize winning motion?
I would like to see all policy papers include an ‘electoral impact assessment’.
I’m not saying that we only subscribe to what may be popular but in passing policy we need to cognisant of its effect on our electability. Our cannabis policy lost us more votes than it gained us in 2017 IMO.
I see the tuition fee issue has been kicked into the long grass. In some way I’m relieved given the discussion paper. In other ways I think we are going into the next election in pretty poor condition to regain the young vote.
Is it possible to get copies of motions not selected for debate?
In response to PJ, in your opinion isn’t actually a quantitative test. Can you point me towards any data that backs your point?
@Callum Robertson
I am not aware of any poling been done and that is why I said IMO. MO comes from knocking on hundreds of doors and talking to people. It was one of those policies that is arguably justifiable but is never going to get people to vote for you as a result. On the other hand it is going to put a lot of people off voting for you. That was my experience. The point I was making is that policy making should not be done in a vacuum unless we are to become a think tank. We have to balance our policy making with the prospect of becoming electable.
PJ, here is some data on people’s opinions of it https://yougov.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/majority-now-support-liberalising-policy-towards-c/
Also knocking on doors myself it’s never come up negatively