Leader of the Welsh Lib Dems Jane Dodds gave her speech at conference today! We’ve put together some highlights below or you can read the speech in full here.

She started with a reminder of a longstanding democratic tradition in Wales and the 1999 election to the Welsh Assembly 

“Almost 600 years after the first Welsh Parliament was established in June 1404, the people of Wales once again had its own national democratic institution”

As Liberal Democrats we are hare holding the Government to account for its foreign policy failure over Afghanistan.

 20 years on from the US-led invasion, the Taliban have swept into Kabul. They seized power illegitimately without the consent of the Afghan people. 

The UK has a moral duty to the people of Afghanistan“

Life under the Taliban regime is one of terror. Women and girls are excluded from education, work and government. Human rights are utterly disregarded with medieval-style punishments used on those who do not conform to Taliban rule. 

The Government has only managed to negotiate one new trade deal – with Australia – since leaving the EU. It has simply “rolled over” 23 existing trade agreements that we were already parts of. This simply isn’t good enough. 

 A thriving economy needs thriving international trade. UK companies doing business in the EU need our help now. We are also at risk of losing our long-established status as a finance hub. Put simply, the government must get its act together. 

We owe our UK businesses the abilitity to trade seamlessly with our global neighbours.

We’ve passed through some great changes to our Party constitution today that will update how party groups – previously known as SAOs and AOs work.

The changes will expand the rights of party groups, simplify the process of setting one up and ensure that party groups get more support and are better integrated into the party. 

You can read the full detail here: https://www.libdems.org.uk/f29-f34

Our society is a brilliant one. Our democratic system goes back hundreds of years and we are committed to the fair rule of law. We have a fantastic tradition of education, creativity and innovation. 

We have incredibly strong institutions. This is clear in the fact our National Health Service has bent over backwards to support us through this pandemic. As much as possible we contribute to key international organisations to support a cooperative global system. 

Unfortunately, these ideals are constantly undermined by an incompetent Government. The Conservatives have betrayed the British people time and time again.