Blogging Conference 08: Saturday

Here I am in Bournemouth for the Liberal Democrat Conference hoping to do a better job of blogging during the week than I did last time.

I’ve taken a rather relaxed approach so far. Having been later in the bar last night than I had intend this morning was rather slow and mainly concerned with a bit of shopping. A pleasant wander around the town in the sunshine. However, I’ve spent this afternoon in the main hall listening to the debates and speeches.

I was disappointed that the motion “Giving Citizens a Voice in Parliament” didn’t get through unamended with the radical, but I thought wholly laudable, idea of “a people’s veto” being voted out. An example of conference being a little too cautious.

The debate on the security policy paper I will deal with in a separate post. As will be obvious from this blog I am a bit of a Party organisation nerd, but even I draw the line at staying for the debate on standing orders so I have nothing to report back on about that.

I did seek our work and pensions spokesperson Jenny Willott MP give a very good speech. I particularly liked the line she used, when talking about the failings of the Tory approach to support for the vulnerable, saying;

“even under Cameron, Conservative means conservative”

Another good line from this afternoon was David Grace in the security debate. Pointing out that the policy paper included the line “Our response to radical ideologies should be a mix of firm defence of our values combined with a willingness to talk” he reminded conference that;

“liberalism is a radical ideology”

This evening I’m looking forward catching up with people at the East of England region’s reception and of course the Blog of the Year Awards Ceremony.

This content was originally posted on my old Process Guy blog.