I am not one for blindly doing what senior Liberal Democrats tell me, but on this occasion, we could all do well to listen to Party President Sal Brinton. She has emailed members to encourage everyone to head to Bournemouth for our Autumn Conference from 19-23 September.
With over 17000 new members, Conference could be bigger and more fun than ever this year.
I can’t wait – partly because I have never ever been to Bournemouth and partly because Conference will be the first time for us to get together as a Lib Dem family since the elections and all the awful things that have happened since. We’ll have a shiny new leader and lots of things to discuss about the future direction of the party.
If you have just joined the party and are wondering what it’s all about, well, actually, it’s some of the best fun you will ever have in your life. I am not joking. Here is my guide to its craziness which will give you some idea of what to expect.
Here’s what Sal had to say in her email:
After this year’s election, the upcoming Conference in Bournemouth is one for all members to attend. I wanted to invite you to join me and other Liberal Democrats there this September.
This Conference is going to be a great way for new and old members to meet and socialise, to create policy, discuss recent elections and how we can keep liberalism alive over the next five years. You’ll have a chance to meet the newly elected leader and Parliamentarians from across the party. And, with such a slim Tory majority, an upcoming EU referendum and future elections, we have many opportunities to fight for what we believe in.
You can find out more about registering here.
The Conference team is busy working out the schedule for Autumn Conference that will include policy discussions, fringe events, socialising and training. Many of our local parties – most likely including yours – have grown in recent weeks. That means we still have the power to make a difference in our towns and cities, to make them more liberal and fairer.
I hope you’ll join us at Bournemouth. I’ve put a little bit more information about Conference at the bottom of this email. After this year’s results, you can help make a difference by coming along.
See you in Bournemouth,
A week away in Bournemouth doesn’t come cheap, but there is a useful Facebook page called Lib Dem Conferences on a Shoestring where people share money saving ideas. One way of doing it on the cheap is to go as a volunteer steward as our Paul Walter has done. We must get him to write his experience up sometime…
There is a very good reason why you should register as soon as possible. The cheapest discounted rate ends next Friday. You run the risk of forgetting if you don’t do it now. The cost of registration is only around £70 (£21 discounted rate) which isn’t bad for five days of wall to wall entertainment from early in the morning till, well, early in the morning.
There’s a big focus, particularly at the weekend, of welcoming new members and it is possible just to come along for a couple of days if you can’t get leave from work.
* 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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16 Comments
Hi Caron,
I’d really like to go (been to every conference for the last 3 years at least) but I do wonder whether the Bournemouth location will put people off. Its a real pain to get to unless you’re in London.
I do wish we’d have our conferences in more central locations with better transport. I guess that would be Birmingham every year though!
Compared to Brighton – which really is difficult to get to – Bournemouth isn’t too bad.
Driving you can use the A34 to avoid London, and there are trains from Birmingham (and direct from Manchester).
There are also flights from Glasgow and Manchester to Bournemouth, and Southampton has flights from Aberdeen, Leeds/Bradford, Edinburgh and Newcastle in addition.
The only place everyone can easily get to is London and we’d complain if everything was held there, so I think moving round the country is the best idea to keep everyone happy and if it’s for a week it’s not as much of a hardship as if it was for a weekend.
Although Bournemouth is a pain from where I live in Sheffield as it involves a cross-London change of trains, it’s my favourite venue once you get there and it’s been a long time since we were last there. Brighton however is really easy for me as I only need to change trains once at St. Pancras without even leaving the station. As I say, you can never keep everyone happy!
Will every member who goes be a voting member, or are we still a two class party?
Anders Hanson 11th Jun ’15 – 3:44pm …………… Although Bournemouth is a pain from where I live in Sheffield as it involves a cross-London change of trains…..
Coaches go direct…cost about £60 return … 7 hrs…..Take a good book…
@William Hobhouse “Will every member who goes be a voting member, or are we still a two class party?”
We’re a three class party: those who go to conference and can vote; those who go and can’t vote; and those who can’t or won’t or don’t go to conference.
Anders, there’s a single-change route (Birmingham New Street) which is a couple of minutes quicker than trying to get from St Pancras to Waterloo.
We still have non-voting reps, but are changing this at conference this year.
Personally, I think that Federal Executive should call a special conference for the Saturday afternoon, vote through the change to all-member voting and and then end the special conference and start the regular one.
Richard Gadsden’s proposal for a vote at the very beginning of conference to allow every member to vote equally must be a good one. Can we get a response for this from the Federal Conference Committee?
I’m sure someone stole my diary to plan events this year. I can’t make the east Midlands hustings or the conference due to business commitments. Hopefully next year 🙁
There is a procedure for calling a Special Conference….whether it can be at a Conference I don’t know:-). Seriously, at FE the other night we approved the amendments that will bring in OMOV for next year.
@Caron – “at FE the other night we approved the amendments that will bring in OMOV for next year.”
Is this OMOV for those attending a conference or full OMOV?
I cannot recall going to a Conference (other than the Coalition special one) for over a dozen years. Perhaps my last one was when I edited the Conference Gazette in Brighton. I thought these conferences had become essentially ‘processional’ heading towards the kind of adulation ‘love-in’ of the Labour and Tory formats. I feel it might actually be worth going to this one.
I think there’s scope to extend voting via an “online” conference. The physical conference still happens, with the debates, speeches, training etc., but votes are done online. My guess is that everyone attending conference will have a mobile phone, and most will have a smartphone or tablet device. There’s no reason why we couldn’t vote by app, online, or by text, with the results of each motion being declared either the next morning (giving people who work and can’t get to conference the time to watch the debates they’re interested in, and vote) or even extending this to the final day of conference.
At the very least whatever is decided at conference should be put out to the whole membership for approval.
Deciding policy with a small number of party members – 500? – out if a total membership of 60,000 is undemocratic and open to manipulation.
@Gareth – Cross Country trains has a direct service that runs from Manchester to Bournemouth (not via London) stopping in Stoke, Birmingham, Coventry, Oxford etc etc. And direct trains (not via London) from Edinburgh to Southampton from where it is a short-ish 45 min journey on to Bournemouth.
http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/tickets-timetables/routes