Covid-19 has wrought havoc on our small businesses, employees and self-employed people across the country.

The Government has hung millions of small-business owners and the self-employed out to dry.

More than three million people have been completely excluded from the Government’s income support scheme.

They’ve had to struggle through this pandemic with no support.

It’s just not good enough.

This week the Conservative Government published their Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. The Government’s priorities set out in this Review are full of hubris and broken promises.

The Prime Minister has said the Government is “standing up for our values”. Yet, the Review shows the Government reneging on commitments to help the world’s poorest while increasing spending on nuclear warheads, putting economic ties before human rights, drastically cutting our armed forces to fill Defence Budget black holes, failing to take decisive action on China and Russia and ignoring the need to rebuild cooperation with the EU.

We are fighting for a UK that stands for liberal, internationalist and compassionate values on the world stage.

The Integrated Review is not strategic, not integrated and not a proper review. It isn’t even conclusive, finishing by saying that it will be followed by “further strategies”.

This week Liberal Democrat MPs will vote against the protest crackdown law.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a mammoth 300 page piece of legislation.

The Conservatives’ plans to crackdown on protests are dangerous and draconian.

There are some measures in the Bill that the Liberal Democrats support – such as the Police Covenant to make sure officers get the support they deserve, and changes to rules on disclosing criminal records to help with rehabilitation.

But other parts of the Bill are extremely concerning.

We are looking forward to welcoming members to our second online conference next week.

We have a packed agenda of debates, fringes, training and exhibition stands as well as the opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues.

Already we have a large number of party members registered to attend. You can join them here. Attending conference is a great part of being a member of the Liberal Democrats. You can vote on our policies, question our Party Leader, Parliamentarians and committee chairs and make your voice heard in how we run our party.

Federal Conference Committee met today to make the final preparations for conference. We selected a number of amendments to debate to the various policy motions that we will be discussing. Over the next couple of days, committee members will be getting back to the successful and unsuccessful proposers of amendments to let them know the reasons for our decisions.

We have selected a motion on the COVID-19 pandemic for the slot at F14. That will be amendable and we will get the text of it out as fast as we can.

We also received a number of emergency motions for consideration. Given the number that were in order, we do not think that we need to have a ballot but rather can debate them in the time we have. The text of those will be released soon.

We will be issuing a new and integrated version of the Agenda early next week. It will contain details of all the amendments we have selected, emergency motions to be considered, questions that will be answered and other updates. In order to make it more user-friendly on screen, we will be not be issuing a separate Conference Extra as we would have done before – all of the information will be in one place.

We recognise that there have been some delays in issuing the printed copy of the conference papers for those that ordered them. We apologise for that. They have now all been sent out.

I look forward to seeing you all this week for our Spring Conference 2021!

Geoff Payne

Chair, Federal Conference Committee

On Saturday, 13th March the Federal Conference Committee met to review the amendments, late motions, emergency motions, questions to reports and appeals for this weekend’s next Spring Conference which commences on Friday.

You can still register for conference HERE. We also have a claimants’ rate, and provide support for those who require it through the Conference Access Fund. You can also donate to the Conference Access Fund as part of your registration.

This will be our second online Conference with our partners at Hopin. As always, we would like to thank the Conference Office and wider HQ team for their support and hard work in bringing together our online conference.

There will shortly be a video on the Conference website which will give you a great overview of the features of the online conference, including the auditorium, fringe sessions, exhibition, training and the chat functionality. Based on the feedback from Autumn Conference some changes have been made including the ‘Report’ button, certain emoticons for reactions, changes to the timings of the fringe sessions and making the exhibition more visible.

You can submit speakers’ cards for Conference HERE and you can submit amendments to the late motion on COVID HERE. Please note that you will need to submit your speakers’ cards earlier than usual (16:00 the day before the agenda item). This is because our production partners will need to get in touch earlier to run through technical preparations. As usual we select more speakers than we will be able to schedule, so that we always have a reserve list.

I have included below the list of items discussed at Saturday’s FCC meeting; you will see the amendments, late motions, emergency motions, and questions submitted.

We will also be issuing an integrated agenda early this week; it will contain all of the amendments selected, emergency motions, questions and other updates. In order to make it more user-friendly on screen, we will not be using a separate Conference Extra as previously. All of the information will be in one place.

Please note that the summary of the amendments is my own; I have tried to summarise the amendments as close as possible to what was submitted. 

Regarding amendments they have either been ‘Selected’ for debate, ‘Not Selected’ or ‘Drafted’. Drafted means that the text of the amendment will be added to the text of the motion and therefore not be debated and voted on separately. 

Regarding emergency motions, these need to relate to something that has happened after the deadline for the motion’s submission, and thus are decided by the FCC if they are or are not in order. We also received a number of emergency motions for consideration. Given the number that were in order, we do not think that we need to have a ballot but rather can debate them all in the time we have. The text of those will be released soon.

With regards to questions, we review that they are being submitted to the correct committee. Additionally, time permitting questions may be taken from the chat for the Committee Reports.

There was one appeal against non-selection of a motion, and the appeal was rejected.

If you have any questions please do pop them in the discussion below, or you can also email me at Nicholas.dacosta@outlook.com.

Best wishes

Nick