| LGBT Lib Dems at Autumn Federal Conference |
[11 Sep 2009|01:45pm] |
|
DELGA, the Lib Dem LGBT wing, is revving up for a fantastic conference in Bournemouth next week. For an overview of DELGA's events, please visit http://lgbt.libdems.org.uk/pages/bournemouth2009.html
We have our AGM, where we'll be electing the brave souls who will steer the organisation into a General Election year. Our Fringe with Stonewall will explore the fight for LGBT rights in the midst of financial and ecological meltdown. And to wind it all off, we'll be spending Tuesday night having a drink and a boogie in Bournemouth's Pink triangle.
If you can volunteer an hour or two on the DELGA stall (particularly if you're a lady - we would like our stall to at least be as representative as our membership), please contact us - it's simple work and a good way to meet people!
|
|
| Conference and Liberal Youth grant |
[30 Aug 2009|10:39pm] |
From 2004 to 2006 the Federal Grant to Liberal Youth (then LDYS) was £28,000. For the last two years it's been £16,000. Do other people think it should go back up to its former levels?
The Federal party gives out about £449,000 each year to other party bodies (inc. Liberal Youth) through this grant. About £130,000 goes to SAOs.
What proportion of this should go to Liberal Youth and what to other sections eg Women Liberal Democrats for the Campaign for Gender Balance?
Personally as a man who's 30 I think Liberal Youth is a better use of the money; but others may disagree!
Anyway, I am looking forward to the Bournemouth conference... won't be there in person but will watch it on the TV.
Acronym key:-
LDYS - Liberal Democrat Youth and Students
SAO - Specified Associated Organisation
|
|
| a vote on Europe? |
[25 Feb 2008|10:04pm] |
This is perhaps one of the smartest moves I think Clegg could make, reasons listed below. Not everyone will like what they are however.
He knows the amendment will never pass, but at the next election he can say "We were the only party to offer you a vote on membership of the EU"
Its honest, its difficult to attack a politician for being honest but more importantly it shows trust in the British public (something the other parties and their centralising agenda seems to lack)
It gets rid of the attack normally levied on the party that they are naive Europhiles
It gets rid of the attack on him that he 'went native' as an MEP
It gets some press coverage
I'm sure there are more, what do you think? Is this a good move or a bad move and why?
|
|
| Leadership election |
[18 Dec 2007|02:34pm] |
OFFICIAL RESULT:
Turnout: 41,465
Clegg: 20,988 (50.62%)
Huhne: 20,477 (49.38%)
CLEGG WINS by 511 (1.23%)
|
|
| Hustings Questions? |
[20 Nov 2007|11:10pm] |
|
I'd like to attend the North-West leadership hustings in Manchester this weekend, but I can't find out how to get a question onto the agenda. Does anybody know?
|
|
| Angry liberal. |
[08 Nov 2007|10:16pm] |
I've been a lurker of this community for a little while, but today I'd like to step forward to say something.
I fucking despise people who dismiss my political stance merely because I am ''a lefty student''.
Not only does this make a mockery of the entire party and everything it stands for, but it severely pisses me off.
I'll admit that a lot of students have a [somewhat unfair] reputation for being dope smoking liberals until they get a job and discover the horrors of taxes and mindless bureaucracy.
Let me paint a picture:
I'm a 16 year old vegetarian liberal female from somewhere in the North West. I smoke, I drink, I consume cannabis and I have sex.
This is the point where so many Tories I have met have laughed lightly, with rolled eyes described the naivety of youth, and clinked their wine glasses together. This includes my parents.
The assumption that I define myself as Liberal merely because of my age and naivety frustrates me immensly.
I am a politics student and political history student, as well as an English student.. I can tell you different electoral systems, past and present, from around the world. I can name most PMs from as far back as Gladstone. I read as many newspapers as I can afford every day, I watch the news way too much.
Oh, and I happen to write socially and politically for more then one newspaper.
Sorry, where was the justification for your frivolous judgement again?
I can tell you every single policy your party has, you close minded fuck, and I bet you can't name me a single one. [This has happened]
Have your political view, but don't belittle mine because of my age.
This has been a rant brought to you by Another Angry Liberal. Have a nice day!
By the way; Nick Clegg? Yes or No? Personally I like him, despite his odd physical resemblence to a certain Tory leader.
|
|
| Wikipedia |
[03 Oct 2007|04:50pm] |
I've decided to work on improving articles concerning the lib dems on wikipedia. A lot of people use wikipedia as a source of information and if we have good, balanced and well references articles it might actually help gain us support! Believe you me, young people are more likely to read the wiki article than the manifesto because I'm one of them.
If anyone has any images of Lib Dem politicians, that they have taken themselves and would be willing to release under a free documentation license such as GFDL I would be able to use them on the articles which tends to improve their appearance significantly.
And of course, help with the actual editing of articles (especially finding reliable references)would also be very much appreciated.
|
|
| Top 100 Lib Dem blogs |
[25 Sep 2007|05:13pm] |
Just a quick little plug;
Ian Dale has published his Top 100 Liberal blogs, and my blog is number 72 :)
The list is well worth a look through, and most (if not all) of the 100 can also be seen over on Lib Dem Blogs
one interesting point though is number 40 (Clowns to the Left of Me) and 59 (Bernard Woolley), are the same blog.
|
|
| Democracy In Action |
[23 Sep 2007|05:23pm] |
I'm trying to understand a little how Liberal Democrat policy is decided. At Federal Conference there were a number of policy motions presented to conference, and each local party sent voting members who could vote on them.
My question is: how do the voting members know which way to vote on behalf of their local party?
|
|
| Lib Dem Blog of the Year |
[18 Aug 2007|09:45am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 amused |
] |
The Liberal Democrats, in conjunction with Lib Dem Voice are running the 2nd annual Lib Dem Blog of the year.
This year there are several categories up for grabs:
• Liberal Democrat blog of the year
• Best blog from a Liberal Democrat elected to public office
• Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st October 2006)
• Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st October 2006)
• Most humorous Liberal Democrat blog
• Best designed Liberal Democrat blog
Nominations can be emailed to - ecampaignteam@libdems.org.uk
The Judging panel will consist of;
Ryan Cullen – From Lib Dem blogs
Lynne Featherstone MP – MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, and a blogger herself
Will Howells – From the Party’s innovations department, and a blogger himself
Stephen Tall – Last year’s winner, and commissioning editor of Lib Dem Voice
The judges will choose a short list of the blogs nominated, for each category. They will then pick the winner for each category, with the exception of the "best designed" category, which will be decided by an online readers poll hosted by Lib Dem Voice
The results will be announced at the awards ceremony at the party's autumn conference: 21.00-23.00, in the Holiday Inn Restaurant on Sunday 16th September.
The decision of the judges will be final and the competition is not open to any blogs run by the judges or any postings written by them.
|
|
| Baroness Neuberger's statement on cannabis BBC Radio Any Questions |
[21 Jul 2007|08:52pm] |
|
As a lib dem I can't believe the statements made last night by Baroness Neuberger on the subject of cannabis and
marijuana on the BBC Any Questions show. You can listen to her, and other equally misinformed, opinions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions.shtml
Our party spokesperson on Health in the Lords claimed that 'Skunk' is far stronger, than it was historically (not the case), and that it was causing mental health problems (again not the case) - both of these current ideas have been thoroughly debunked by published research.
Perhaps our shadow Health Minister and Spokesperson could take their information from the guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,2041749,00.html) or the indy ( http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2788634.ece) rather than the Daily Mail.
Furthermore, following Sir Campbells fine words about the RSA report being a 'wake up call' in March, closely followed by publication of an article by experts in The Lancet in march debunking current myths, and more recently the Transform report on drug policy - surely now is a better time than ever to set out an ambituous plan for liberalisation going much further than the wishy washy policy on drugs set in 2005.
The Indy has done another u-turn on Cannabis liberalisation ( http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/deborah_orr/article2788635.ece ) - after waking from it's "Skunk Nightmare", ministers are admitting it didn't do them any harm and the public are making it clear that actually they
don't care if other people smoke weed.
And it's not just me - I think most lib dem bloggers see now as a great opportunity to grow some backbone and stand out from the other parties with some genuine liberal and progressive policies - sensible drug liberalisation rather than mumbling about taking it at uni and not liking it much or fiddling with classification.
|
|
| a quick plug |
[11 Jul 2007|04:19pm] |
http://www.libdemblogs.co.uk/ hopefully the name explains it all :)
basically its a collection of over a hundred blogs written by liberal democrats across the country. with the number of blogs growing week by week, its a great place to read what other lib dems are thinking
|
|
| Trades Unions |
[10 Jul 2007|04:33pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
busy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
DeathBoy - "Hellisontheway" |
] |
I've been doing some research into trades unions of late. Though it's possible to be a member of most (all?) unions without actively donating to the Labour Party, it seems that the ties between unions and Labour are still strong. As a Liberal Democrat who's interested in joining a union, what's my best course of action? Are there any unions which aren't in bed with Labour at the higher levels?
Update: I know that I don't have to contribute directly to the Labour Party, but if the general activities of the union are supportive of New Labour, then my union membership is in effect contributing to Labour. One of the unions I looked at while trying to find one good for IT workers is Amicus, who are strongly linked to Labour. See also Trade Union & Labour Party Liason - is there a Lib Dem equivalent?
|
|
| Lib Dems, IT and open source |
[12 Mar 2007|02:47pm] |
Two issues to raise here..
The first is that we lack any serious Information/Communication Technology at shadow cabinet level, and none of our spokespeople or working groups have the experience or knowledge to contribute any useful ICT policy beyond the basic obvious, hand-wavey, stuff like 'Big IT Projects always fail', 'ID Cards are a bad idea', etc.
What bugs me is that there are so many issues that are critical to governance, policy and serving as her majesty's opposition that require that, as in every FTSE 100 company, we have the equivilent to an IT director 'on the board', in the case of government and political party's it is a nonsense that we have nobody like this at cabinet or shadow cabinet level and no group with experience and an ear to the ground to research, inform and build policy on so many issues from hundreds of failing government IT projects, to procurement, to anti-trust and software patents, to growing our own software industry instead of being dependant on the U.S.
Anyway, I hope to get this issue recognised in the party so that we can be a 21st century party, and not fall even further behind the Tories, who are looking (aside from the occasional relic from 'the old nasty party') like a greener, more technology aware and energetic liberal party than my own.
|
|
| My first Spring Conference |
[04 Mar 2007|11:04pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
cheerful |
] |
I just got back from my first-ever Lib Dem conference. I had a great time and came away feeling that I understand the Party much better and that I want to focus far more of my energy on it, because I think I'm going to be able to contribute more effectively there than in most of the other organisations of which I'm a member.
The highlights for me were the Health consultative session on Friday afternoon, and the Glee Club last night. I now have an earworm of the chorus to "The Land", but I don't think I mind too much! The lowest point for me was the rally on Friday evening; the choice of theme seemed opportunistic, the repeated use of context-less statistics was embarrassing, and the video presentation had a Pythonesque quality at times, as well as appearing to contradict Ming (we really can't have it both ways on ASBOs). It's a shame, because the crime policy motion and the paper underlying it were actually much better than the rally or Ming's Five Points make them appear. It was also disappointing to see Nicol Stephen disingenously claiming that we don't know what the SNP's crime policy is - it took me two minutes to find it on their website afterwards, and guess what? it's remarkably similar to ours. I'm a former SNP member myself, having left partly because of a weakening in their commitment to LGBT Scots and partly because I'm probably going to live in England for the rest of my life and wanted to join a party that could exercise some influence there. From my experience, the SNP has very similar values and a very similar culture to ours and would make a far more natural coalition partner for us than New Labour, if we could only see past the hypocrisy of being in favour of self-determination for every nation in the world except Scotland and Wales.
Still, overall it was a very interesting and energising Conference. My top tips for anyone considering going to one would be 1) pace yourself and don't try to do everything; 2) prepare in advance for any session you think you might want to contribute to, so you've got facts to back you up and can make your point or ask your question with confidence; and 3) take a coat with large pockets so that you can leave handbags, backpacks etc in your hotel room and walk straight past the bag check on the way into Conference.
|
|
| Hey All |
[18 Sep 2006|04:35pm] |
Hiya, my name is Louise and I want to join the Liberal Democrat party.
I've just really started getting into politics, I'm in my last year of college and everyone around me is annoyingly Tory or Marxist or some other awful ideology... I actually just joined LiveJournal so I could post here to get some advice!
I'm going to sign up later when my parents get back (they have the debit card), and I'd like to know what I get when I join and whether it's easy to find campaigners in my area. I'm between Milton Keynes and Aylesbury, and I'd really like to get started asap! Most of you are probably at the conference anyway - but that is what really inspired me to join.
Do I recieve any tips on campaigning or tips on local meetup? I'd like to be an active member rather than a stay at home and read mailouts member, I want to be out there on the streets, campaigning.
If any of you have links to helpful sites or booklets or anything that would be great. Thanks in advance and I hope to hear from you soon!
Louise.
|
|
| no one else was doing it so..... |
[23 Jul 2006|04:25pm] |
No one else was doing this, so i did it :)
remember when joining not to just friend it, join because that way we'll have a good measure of LJers who support it rather than people that watch. we might have some haters watching you see.
cross posted to a few places
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
libdems
11 (57.9%)