Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference 2007

12.02.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 19th Sep 2007

Unfortunately this year I am not at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference, which started on 15th September. A long period of unemployment, Ramadhan and plans for a trip abroad later this year just mean it is unaffordable this year.

However I have been watching some of the coverage on BBC Parliament, watching the daily conference web casts on the Liberal Democrats website, checking up the Liberal Democrat Conference section of the BBC website and the politics section of The Guardian and The Independent along with blogs and websites of Liberal Democrat friends and colleagues to find out what is happening in Brighton.

I was very pleased to see that conference passed The Power to be Different (Local and Regional Governance Policy Paper). I was on the working group, which drafted the paper which conference referred back last year. Liberal Democrats owe a great debt to Judith Jolly who chaired both the working groups having worked with her on the first working group I know how hard she worked and all the efforts she made to ensure that the opinions, perspectives and views of everyone were considered.

There seems to have been a lot of coverage about the debate on Taking a Global Lead (Climate Change Policy Paper) which is great especially since it comes on the back of How green are our parties? The Green Standard report, which said the Liberal Democrats are the greenest of the three main political parties.

I was really pleased to see that José Manuel Barroso the President of the European Commission was the foreign guest speaker this year and I was very disappointed to miss the speech however the speech is now available on the Liberal Democrats website (link below) which I will read when I have a chance.

Danny Alexander MP and Julia Goldsworthy MP delivered a joint speech on Welfare Reform, I caught a bit of that on BBC Parliament but not enough to get the substance of the speech but I thought the idea was good and look forward to seeing whether something similar will happen at future conferences.

Today there were two major policy debates. Reducing the Burden (Tax Reform Policy Paper) commits the Liberal Democrats to cut the basic rate of national income tax by 4p and abolish Council Tax and replace it with a Local Income Tax amongst other things. Freedom from Poverty, Opportunity for All (Poverty and Inequality Policy Paper) highlights the Liberal Democrats priorities in tackling poverty and inequality will be removing up to five million people from relative poverty by 2020 reducing means-testing for over 5 million people by 2020, supporting two million more people into employment by 2020, delivering a million more affordable homes by 2020 and targeting resources to improve education for over a million disadvantaged children. However the policy that seems to be getting all the media attention Immigration in the 21st Century calls for a National Border Force, the reintroduction of exit checks at all ports, the development of an earned route to citizenship, beginning with a two-year work permit, for irregular migrants who have been in the UK for 10 years, a full review of social housing allocations policies, full ratification of the Council of Europe convention on people trafficking and the transfer of responsibility for migration statistics to the Office of National Statistics amongst other things.

The conference still has one full day and then a half-day on Thursday before the speech of Party Leader Sir Menzies Campbell MP.

Things I am looking out for or would have loved to have seen if I was at conference are the Presentation by Alliance Party of Northern Ireland which is on early this morning, that is followed by the policy debate on For the People, By the People (Better Governance Policy Paper). I was a member of the Better Governance Policy Working Group so hope that the paper passes without too much difficulty. I do have some disagreements with the paper in some parts on which I will comment sometime after the paper has been discussed at conference.

Other then that nothing really stands out for me but the speech of Party Leader Sir Menzies Campbell MP which could be his last autumn conference speech before the next general election which could be later this autumn or spring 2008. My guess is 1st May 2008.

Related Links:

Alan Beddow.

Anders Hanson.

Colin Ross.

Dave Radcliffe.

David Nikel.

For the People, By the People.

Freedom from Poverty, Opportunity for All.

James Graham.

Jonathan Fryer.

Jonathan Wallace.

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission Speech.

Liberal Democrat Conference.

Liberal Democrat Voice.

Liberal Democrats Youth & Students.

Ming Campbell.

Neil Fawcett.

Reducing the Burden.

The Guardian.

The Independent.

The Power to be Different.

Will Howells.

Zero-Carbon Britain - Taking a Global Lead.