Well Being Economics: First Reflections on Jo's FIrst Leader's Speech #JoSwinson #LDConf

The key thing that made me jump out of my seat during Jo Swinson's leader's speech was when she questioned why we measure the state of our country by GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It took me back to one of my first Economics tutorials  a little over 30 years ago.

In that tutorial the tutor said that economics was basically powered by everyone getting out of it what is best for themselves. I questioned that said what about those who were concerned about giving others a fair chance, cared about the environment etc. It will probably not therefore surprise you to know that in my elective courses in my second and third year I focused on Environmental and Developmental Economics along with my third choice European. The fact that after the second year and carried all three on deeper shows you that I have been tuned into this for over 30 years.

As Jo said with the level of well being for our planet and indeed everyone in our society we need to act now. We are in a climate emergency, we need urgent action. We have a President in the White House and another in Brazil who seem to not see the importance and actually don't want others to see this either. But the facts have been there for years and looking at some of my Environmental Economics books from 30 years ago even the predictions then are way sort of the disaster we are in now. 

However, as Jo points out if we have any Brexit, especially if we have a no deal Brexit we will be furiously kicking under the flood waters to keep ourselves afloat without the time, energy or resources to be able to deal with such big issues. We'll be in survival mode, like those developing countries I learnt about 30 years ago, who said they had to follow our path to development burning fossil fuels, massive factories, chopping down their forests. This was because we refused to share with them the benefits their resources had given us in colonial times and they now felt left behind. But that will be the Britain post-Brexit. 

We need to deal with things in the round, in conversation and coalition with other nations to deal with these issues, not heading to isolation behind the hulking, shulking Boris running from people who think differently from him.

We need to act. We need to demand better. We need to do it now.

The silenced minority #ldconf #lgbt

I have just listened to most of the Liberal Democrat motion on increasing diversity of our MPs. While there were women (the main beneficiaries of the motion), disabled, BME and Trans speakers on this motion. One of the minority groups that is not represented in our MP gay men was not represented, indeed through most of the speeches LGBT+ rights was barely mentioned.

In fact the most mention of LGBT+ candidates came in the request for a reference back. This is a way to ask for the motion to be looked at in more depth and brought back to a later conference. The call for the reference back mentioned LGB and non-binary inclusion to be considered. This was not even voted to be debated. So it appears that Liberal Democrat Conference didn't even want to listen to the concerns of LGBT+ representatives on this issue.

Between the lack of those called, the lack of consideration from most speakers and the failure to even listen to the reference back, it appears that Liberal Democrat Conference does not care about the impact of have no LGBT+ representation and the fact that the chance of having any gay male MPs after the 2020 election appears almost non-existent.

As as gay man who has stood in three election cycles I will be almost 51 at the 2020 election, but almost 56 at the 2025 election. I have spoken on issues affecting women, disability and BME people at conference in the past. I'm not someone who only speaks at conference for people like me, but today I'm sorry that conference seemed to have a debate covering a wide range of boxes, but each of those from a box or boxes addressed "mostly" only those within their box and little outside that box.

It has therefore as a result of the debate this morning that this candidate sees no way to advance as a candidate. There is a lot I can offer to the party going forward, but the party this morning has just shut the door on the potential for me as a Westminster Candidate.

Extra Night Accomodation - The Lib Dem Conference debacle

So it appears that some people (probably based in the south) have considered that having a full day Saturday and ending Autumn Conference on a Tuesday is going to safe people money on accommodation. As someone who many times has travelled from the northern reaches to the southern coast I beg to disagree.

Travelling from Scotland or locations up north the later start on the Saturday often allowed people the option of travelling on the first train or plane in the morning on the Saturday and if they wanted to getting to those consultative or training sessions that take place on Saturday ahead of the conference rally. Also depending on when our transport could be booked we either left before the leader's speech to head for trains north on the Wednesday or immediately afterwards.

If you are going to make a full day Saturday and a full day Tuesday people coming from further afield are going to have to come down a day early and stay overnight on the Friday and probably are still going to need somewhere to stay on the Tuesday night after a full day thus meaning an EXTRA nights accommodation at GREATER COST. This could actually result in having to take an EXTRA DAY OFF work for those wanting to get to conference from any distance.

Travel on a Friday is often dear than on a Saturday and harder to come by as weekly commuters also are looking for travel option at this time especially in the evening, which is the time that most from the North will probably be hitting London looking to get to those south coast resorts that hold the majority of our Autumn conferences. Of course Northern Liberal Democrats could break their journey here and like the London and southern based Liberal Democrats travel down on Saturday morning when fares are cheaper. But we'd have to find more expensive accommodation for one night in the capital.

Yes the proposals are clearly not to make conference cheaper for delegates outside the London commuter belt, in fact they are bound to make it more expensive for those in the North and Scotland to attend Federal conference and are merely a way to make it cheaper to host but will make it more Southern Centric and less democratic as an upshot.

F17 Alternative Motion: Protecting Children from High Street Coffee #talknottech #ldconf

Lib Dem conference is going to be debating Protecting Children from internet pornography. However, over a coffee decided to slightly reword the motion based on something close to hand.

 

Conference welcomes the fact that:

A.Caffeine has the power to transform our society by empowering citizens, improving and extending

services, and enabling innovation.

 

B. It is vital both for our economy and our society that we teach children how to use caffeine from an

early age.

 

C. Liberal Democrats have a long tradition of protecting free speech and the right for adults to make

informed choices about their own caffeine habits.

 

However, conference believes that:

 

i) It is the role of government to protect those too young to make an informed choice from potentially

damaging experiences wherever possible.
ii) The long term effects on young minds of early exposure to often strong and highly-caffeinated blends is

highly damaging to impressionable young people and may significantly alter their attitudes to sleep and drink.

iii) The growing danger of children accessing high street caffeine is of increasing concern to parents,

teachers and children’s organisations.

iv) In addition to the problems posed by high street coffee shops, there are also significant concerns about other caffeine access points such as supermarkets and canned drinks that often actively target young people.

 

Conference notes:

a) That the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has recently found an increase in the number of cases of children sleep deprived from over consumption.

b)The increasing number of cases of children being bullied or coerced into sampling caffeine drinks by their peers.

c) That the National Association of Herbal Tea Manufacturers has found that nine out of ten parents want a default setting on coffee machines to be a single shot.

 

Conference therefore calls on the Government to:

1. Work with the coffee retails industry to introduce coffee filters to explicit excessive caffeine on all new caffeine-enabled coffee devices.

2.Ensure that those adults wishing to drink extra-strong caffeine material should be required to opt in to machines containing such extra strength by providing verifiable proof of age.

3. Work with Caffeine Service Providers (CSPs)  to police actively their platforms and filter out

explicit caffeine which is currently easily accessible to children.

4.Support parents to take a more active role in how their children use caffeine and to understand the

risks involved.

5.Ensure that teaching about the dangers of coffee and the distorted view of caffeine provided by

coffee shops forms part of drink education teaching.

Accreditation or time to move #LDConf into the 21st Century

So various Lib Dem committees say that they just have to allow police accreditation checks to let Liberal Democrat conference to go ahead. Do they have to or can we creatively think our way around this dilemma keep Lib Dem Conference liberal and move it into the 21st century.

Most of us who have working in a modern business environment know all about tele-conferencing. With Skype being readily available and used widely even images can be broadcast to delegates computers wherever they are. Most people have broadband or can gain access to someone who does fairly easily.

So do we actually need to meet in one hall to debate and vote on policy at all?

Speakers cards could be submitted electronically, and the chair and their aide may have to call speakers to stand by slightly early so that their webcam and microphone could be tested before transmission etc. All this could be chaired and managed from Great George Street and the cabinet ministers for their set pieces could either be in London or their constituencies or anywhere else for that matter. Anyone could see the feed an all speakers could speak from the luxury of their front rooms or studies. Think of the ability of those on lower incomes not having to pay for transport, food and accommodation.

Voting could be done electronically, we can already vote for our committee reps online with a unique code.
 If we allow a certain amount of time two to five minutes at a scheduled immovable time for a vote on a motion everyone should be able to vote electronically if they are an elected conference rep. You could even set up options that deal with every eventuality if amendments are accepted or rejected, so these options could all be voted for at the same time as separate votes for you, but confirmed by the system.

Some people will argue that some delegates will not be able to deal with such a change. But they could host younger or IT savvy members of the party for the period of the online conference who could set up and train them in how to use the new technologies.

The only people that would need to know anything about the identities of conference reps would be the party and probably Electoral Reform Services who would be carrying out the voting end of things.

Of course lobby groups would miss out on the chance to lobby us while they wine and feed us. But they could always use the successful conference call systems already utilised and these would not have to be in conference week but whenever they feel able to hold them. Questions could be emailed or texted or even put into Skype of MSN chat or alternatives in to the keynote speakers and the chair could then avoid the sometimes replication or irrelevant question that comes when you take questions from the floor.

Of course training would not be able to be done centrally. But the party is already starting to utilise and roll out some online training. This could also become something that is done on a regional level on specific weekends trainers could offer this to local delegates.

Sadly of course we lose the time networking the bars in the evenings, or over coffee at the conference venues or in the queues to fringe events or whatever. We'd also lose the chance to have a good old sing-a-long at Glee Club whatever our worries or disagreements to bring the conference to a conclusion. We'd miss the chance to go around the stalls in the exhibition, but think of the trees we would save and backs that wouldn't strain from all the freebies and brochures in our suitcases as we head off our separate ways after we've given the leader their standing ovation.

So yes there are some downsides from not having to hire a conference centre to hold a conference, but the business of deciding party policy doesn't have to give in to illiberal approaches to civil liberties. Indeed instead of the slim possibility of some action disrupting a unaccredited conference and costing the party a fortune we could actually save the party and delegates a lot of money year on year by not actually having to travel to one location. And think of the carbon we would be saving! Each rep would only have to offset their computer usage instead of flights, car, train or coach trips.

But we'd miss seeing our family. It is possible but it is a whole lot less sterile so don't give me the argument that this is about cost, that is b___s___ and FFAC know that.

When satisfied doesn't tell the whole story #ldconf

At the conference in Birmingham I would say I was satisfied with the way police dealt with security. It may have something to do with being raised in Northern Ireland that I noticed certain things that maybe many of my party colleagues didn't quite see, or maybe didn't quite understand was was going on, such as swabs off various parts of the ICC first thing in the morning, or the odd movement at the edge of my peripheral vision.

Of course while I may have been satisfied with how the security operation went at Birmingham, that has to be taken under advisement. Anyone who saw my only contribution from the stage will know I wasn't that satisfied with procedure before the conference. If you didn't see what I said you can take a look.



 Now from what I understand only 66% were satisfied or higher with security arrangements at conference, from their feed back forms. That does leave 1 not satisfied to a greater or lesser extend to every two above. But also how many of those would normally have been a higher than satisfied rating.

You see security arrangements cover more than merely pre-conference accreditation checks. It also covers the handling of queues, the security on site, the ease of access between sites etc. So a very satisfied can become a satisfied because of a mishandling of one area very easily.

There was a vote at conference, bear in mind this was only of the reps that attended conference, as I mentioned in my speech there are those who were not with us, some refused to seek access to the security zone because of the accreditation process. That vote didn't go the way of what the Lib Dems Federal Conference Committee (FCC) said they 'had' to do. The other speeches pointed out flaws in what the police said they 'had' to do, just in the way that Lib Dem MPs did when the police said they 'had' to have the right to detain for 90 days without trial. Remember that?

Therefore to be asked to give my opinion on accreditation at conference by Andrew Wiseman, chair of FCC yet again seems a bit much. I have already given it three time. First when I noticed a Northern Irish issue with the disclosure of both passport numbers, something that was flippantly ignored. Second when I spoke and conference voted to keep Lib Dem Conference liberal, something that now seems to be ignored, and finally in the comments I made on my conference feed back form.

I am however, now stating why I am opposed to it yet again, for a fourth time.

Sometimes you just have to repeat yourself. But come on FCC I'm not going to let you carry out a neverendum on this issue. We have spoken, we have instructed you to seek a better situation, get on with it. If you cannot watch out for your positions when those conference reps get a chance to elect a new FCC later this tear.

Sometimes I know I have to repeat myself, so today is one of those days.