Conference season

If it's September, it must be party conference season.

For me this generally means work, as I'm paid by my political party to administer the training courses the Liberal Democrats run for our members at conference. This year, in Liverpool, that's 118 courses - not as many as the 150+ that we ran last autumn, but still a sizeable amount of training.

However, this year, for the first time in years, I'll also be registering to attend as a voting representative. I don't normally do this, as I have so little time to spend in the conference hall.

But this year I've signed an amendment to a motion, on Free Schools and Academies (on P32 of the agenda). The amendment is being submitted for consideration by the party's Conference Committee, and I've agreed to sum up the debate on it if the amendment is accepted on to the agenda. If it is, it'll be interesting to be up against Peter Downes, former headmaster of Hinchingbrooke, who will be proposing the original motion.