Archive for Conference
A small note about the "secret" Liberal Democrat conference
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the decision to exclude the media from today’s Liberal Democrat special conference in Birmingham has resulted in some calling it “secret” or “closed”. So it’s worth briefly noting for the record that the organisers expected (and, those I spoke to, even wanted) the event to be covered by twitterers and bloggers.
Nine amendments to be debated at Birmingham special conference
Sunday’s special conference in Birmingham will debate nine amendments to the motion about the party’s coalition agreement with the Conservatives (full text of motion here).
The amendments range over why talks with Labour failed, how the party’s policy process will now work, inequality, tuition fees, the Digital Economy Act, the Human Rights Act, lesbian, gay, bisexual [...]
Further details of special conference published
As reported earlier today by Helen, the party is holding a special conference in Birmingham on Sunday.
More details are now available. First, here’s the explanation from Duncan Brack (Chair of the Federal Conference Committee) about why it is being held:
The Federal Executive has called this special conference to enable the party to debate the coalition [...]
Nick Clegg's speech to Lib Dem conference
You can now watch Nick Clegg’s speech to the Liberal Democrat spring conference here: (In advance of the speech I wrote this setting out what the speech needed to achieve, and afterwards Stephen Tall wrote this assessing the speech.)
Digital Economy Bill debate: what’s set to happen tomorrow?
The story so far:
Emergency motion on the Digital Economy Bill submitted (see full text on Bridget Fox’s blog)
Federal Conference Committee treat it fairly generously – as emergency motions do not normally get into the territory of drawing up significant new party policy (because, by their nature, the wording is only published at the last moment [...]
Live blogging: Reports of the Federal Executive and the Federal Finance and Administration Committee
Federal Executive (FE) report moved by Ros Scott – “I hope it is a sign that you are all fairly happy with the party that the room is emptying so rapidly.” Explains FE meetings always start with a session with Nick Clegg and also gets regular updates on the general and local election campaigns.
Explains how [...]
Parliamentary Parties report back to conference
Party business sessions are usually fairly thinly attended at party conference, except back in the days of disaster and near bankrupcy immiediately after the merger which formed the Liberal Democrats.
They can however play an important role, particularly where well chosen questions tease out information or get commitments on the record. James Graham’s question this morning about [...]
“If you want change, vote for the only party that will bring about change”
That was the message of Danny Alexander’s speech to the Liberal Democrat spring conference this morning. Change – but not just any sort of change:
Two ideas will dominate this election campaign: change and fairness. Only one party is arguing at this election for both fairness and change: the Liberal Democrats.
Change: because business as usual is [...]
Danny Alexander commits party to seeking further changes to Digital Economy Bill
Speaking at the Liberal Democrat spring conference this morning, Danny Alexander MP (Vice Chair of the Federal Policy Committee and chair of the party’s General Election Manifesto Group) said the party will seek to make further changes to the Digital Economy Bill when it comes to the Commons.
The Bill, currently passing through the Lords, has [...]
Nick Clegg’s conference speech: what does it need to do? #ldconf
With the Liberal Democrat spring conference in Birmingham this weekend, Nick Clegg is giving his last conference speech before the general election. Who knows, there may even be two general elections before he gets to give his autumn conference speech…
So what does Nick need to achieve with his Sunday speech?
Conference speeches have two audiences: the [...]
