Conference Diary - part 1

Today, Yannie & I are travelling up to Glasgow to be ready to take part in the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference starting tomorrow.

Apart from being accompanied by my wife (her first time at Conference), there is one big difference this year from previous Conferences I have attended, I am going as a voting representative!

As far as I am aware, this will be the first time a representative from the Bassetlaw & Sherwood local party has been able to vote at a National Conference. This is the result of our growth locally, up over 40% in the last year, meaning we are now a constituted party and entitled to votes at Conference.

One of the topics we will be voting on in Glasgow is our Pre-Manifesto. This document (if we accept it) will form the basis of our Manifesto for next year’s General Election. While other parties throw tasty (or not so tasty) morsels at the electorate, we have a comprehensive, thought out, costed, programme, which the other parties are already “borrowing” the bits from, like raising the Tax Allowance up to £12,500 and the Mansion Tax, both derided by other parties in 2010 but taken up by them now.

I mentioned above that the Conference has to accept the Pre-Manifesto. This isn’t just a formality, unlike the other conferences of the other parties, the Lib Dem Conference makes Party Policy. There are no block votes like the Trades Unions have with Labour, no staged debates that have no real meaning like the Tories have, at our conference all local parties send their reps (numbers of reps from each is related to the members in each local party) who can vote but any Lib Dem member can attend and speak. It is interesting to talk with some members who have come over to the Lib Dems from Labour and have attended Labour Conferences as reps as well. They say the atmosphere and the freedom to speak at Lib Dem Conferences is much more open & welcoming at our Conference. One, Sarah Brown from Broxtowe, wrote a

explaining the difference.

So it all starts tomorrow, 5 days of a mixture of serious debates, having fun meeting up with friends (and making some new ones) & colleagues from around the country and any number of fringe events (talks, discussions, receptions) from a host of charities, think tanks & party groups. Always stimulating, always tiring but most of all always great fun. I will try to write a short blog post every day to let you know what I have been up to, but now I really must go and pack