The sandals and beards were out in force as I pulled into New Street Station; clearly the Lib Dem conference was in town! It started in slightly controversial fashion, when a vote that would have allowed a debate on the NHS Bill was won, but not by the two-thirds majority required for the debate to happen. I personally felt that debate should have happened, given the importance of the NHS, but can understand those that didn’t want to go over previously covered ground.
Another interesting debate on the Saturday was House of Lords reform, (no, really…) and particularly an amendment calling for a gender balanced Lords. I personally have never been comfortable with the idea of quotas in order to boost the number of women in Parliament, but totally accept my party is embarrassingly lacking when it comes to female and minority representation, and that something must be done.
After the debates it was on to the rally, which was hosted by Willie Rennie MSP, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and Tessa Munt, MP for Wells. Rennie and Munt were joined on stage first by Don Foster, who spoke about the environment, and then Deputy Leader of the House David Heath, who spoke on constitutional reform. Education minister Sarah Teather then gave her take on early years intervention, before being joined by candidate Chris Lucas, who continued the theme of minority candidates. Chief Whip Alistair Carmichal spoke about tax, and his role in Parliament, before introducing Nick Clegg. The Leader’s speech was very impressive, emphasising that Liberal Democrats operate like a family, with all the passion, disagreement, but ultimately support, that that entails. All the rally speakers highlighted Liberal Democrat achievements in government, and it was a rather fun affair, with Evan Harris now seemingly to have replaced Lembit Opik as the butt of many of the jokes.
After the rally I headed over to the Lib Dem Blog of the Year awards, organised by Helen Duffett at Lib Dem Voice. It’s always nice to catch up offline with the people you engage with online, and the event was filled with people from across the Lib Dem blogosphere. There were winners in a variety of categories, with Nick Thornsby deservedly claiming the main prize.
The highlight of Sunday for me was a speech by Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. He is a much-improved public speaker, and Alexander clearly laid out a liberal economic policy, and how it is being pursued by the Liberal Democrats in government. The section that most impressed me was on continuing to raise the income tax threshold, ultimately so that nobody on the minimum wage will pay income tax. He also made good noises on clamping down on tax avoidance, pointing out the government has already brought in an extra £2bn this year. He left the stage to a standing ovation.
My fellow TP blogger Martin Shapland rightly pointed out that Lib Dem conference is the only real, democratic, party conference . Like all Lib Dem institutions, it is having to adjust to life in government. This weekend shows it is doing it pretty well.
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