Sunday 16 May 2010

Birmingham special conference

Getting ready to go to Birmingham this morning, for the Liberal Democrats' special conference to discuss the coalition agreement with the Conservatives. The agenda has just one item, a motion on the agreement.

Nine amendments have been accepted for debate, including one from my former local party in Harlow, where I used to live. They cover
  • the lack of will of the Labour Party to take part in a coalition

  • the fact that the Liberal Democrats remain an independent party free to develop its own policy

  • the need for the new government to ensure the gap between rich and poor is narrowed over the course of this parliament

  • a re-affirmation of the Liberal Democrats' objective of scrapping tuition fees

  • a call to repeal parts of the Digital Economy Act

  • a commitment to seek to protect the Human Rights Act 1998

  • a re-statement of Liberal Democrat commitment to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans equality

  • a call to move towards a proportional voting system for local government, and

  • a re-commitment to the party's policy of PR for elections to the House of Commons.
It'll be an historic event, and I'm really looking forward to being part of it.

1 comment:

  1. We need the amendment to particularly state PR by STV and to underpin that by stating the advantages of multi-member constituencies covering the sub-regional “localities” across which most typically live their lives in work, rest and play.

    Far from any loss of the link between MP and constituency – STV updates our electoral system for this age where work, shops and home are not down the same few streets.

    ReplyDelete

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