Charles Kennedy's speech and my latest video diary

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Tuesday was the big day at conference! Would Ming’s leadership be dented by defeat? That was the media’s obsession. In the event – Lib Dems had a red letter day. Our big idea – switching taxation from the person to pollution passed without amendment. Now both Labour and Tory will have to come onto our territory if they are really going to walk the talk – as opposed to their current hot air.

Later Charles made the traditional speech given to leaders of our party. He received a standing ovation on coming and going – and went for a Liberal drum-beating approach. He was never going to come on as an avenging angel – despite what the media probably hoped for. He wasn’t out to upstage Ming. It was just good solid stuff.

The evening was the piece de resistance! The book – Britain after Blair was launched and five of us who have written chapters were there to entice people to buy it. My chapter is about race relations. Blair’s legacy is worsening race relations. The negative impact of our American inspired foreign policy is clear in the growing fear of Muslims and consequent growing divisions in our communities. We are also more segregated than when Blair came to power – both residentially and socially – and this incendiary neglect of deprivation and isolation can lead to awful outcomes where communities have become extreme in their segregation – look at the race riots that were sparked in France and Holland because they were simply left to fester. But you’ll have to buy the book to not only know what proposals I argue for but also what the other 13 MPs say as well as a sensational audit of the country in Britain after Blair!Published by Centre Forum.

Today (Wednesday) – started with my usual (now) video diary – with another TV crew filming me filming my diary. The media love this stuff at the moment! You can watch it here:

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8491896411529032552&hl=en-GB

The Great Repeal Act

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Yesterday was Nick Clegg’s big moment with his set piece speech (he’s my boss as our Shadow Home Secretary).

Targeting Labour’s favourite tendency – legislation – Nick went for the 3,000 new criminal offences created by Labour (1,300 under Blunkett alone) with the message ‘do less, but do it better’. I guess that’s something Labour just don’t understand. Less is more! Wave after wave of new laws that have broken the Home Office down into a gibbering form of incompetence as they fail to cope. John Reid blaming the civil service for what has been an intolerable torrent of ineffective law.

Far too often Labour goes for bringing in another law that does the same thing as an existing law which hasn’t actually been properly used – which is so often the case.

Nick also reeled off the list of illiberal laws that Labour has brought in taking away our freedoms and indeed, our British values. The right to protest, control orders, curfews, etc etc etc – the list is long, long, long. There is even a law against selling or buying grey squirrels.

So Nick’s big idea is the Great Repeal Act – an Act that will take away unnecessary laws and roll back all the illiberal infringements of our civil liberties. And he wants the public to send in the laws they believe should form part of this – so you can contact www.greatrepealact.com with your ideas.

The basic message is that ‘tough’ and ‘soft’ – the language of Labour and Tories on crime is yesterdays world. For LibDems it’s what is effective that matters.

In the afternoon it was Ming being interviewed by the Guardian’s Michael White (who was quite fabulous I thought). It was Ming in his best setting. He is comfortable and at home in this milieu and came over as relaxed and confident. He did make a mix up with Arctic Monkeys but suffice to say that even Olympic sprinters can occasional encounter a hurdle! But the over-riding impression I got – and indeed always get – is that Ming is a truly decent human being. And in this day and age of political volatility and shallowness – is a welcome change.

And today as I write (Tuesday) is a biggie. Usually they say only two things are certain in life – death and taxes. At the LibDem conference it’s Charlie and taxes!

Nick Clegg's conference speech

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So last night was a veritable blog-fest! And blogging is soooooo flavour of the moment. I went straight out after handing over the award to do Five Live with John Pienaar, who is himself today starting a blog for the first time! Good luck John!

This morning, Monday, the big event is my boss – otherwise known as Shadow Home Secretary or Nick Clegg’s keynote speech. I have just emerged from his bravura performance where Conference gave him a standing ovation. It was an excellent speech which really went for the shallowness of Labour’s rhetoric on crime, their obsession with new legislation (3,000 new offences since taking office) and their hideous illiberal approach to dealing with the new threats we face – which also won’t deliver. As Nick put it – they need to do less but do it better. He proposed a Great Repeal Act to take away the raft of useless laws that encroach on our British values and way of life. Read his speech – it is worth the time. It’ll appear shortly at http://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/conference.html

LOCAL MP CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO SAVE THE PEOPLE OF DARFUR

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Local MP Lynne Featherstone this week backed calls from her party for immediate international action to save the people of Darfur.

At the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton, Lynne Featherstone lent her support to the efforts of Susan Kramer, the Party’s International Development Spokesperson, who is highlighting the plight of the two million refugees in western Sudan.

Lynne Featherstone commented:

“Sunday’s Global Day for Darfur protests saw the world demand that the international community act where the Sudanese Government has not. The desperate humanitarian situation in the region is worsening daily.

“Now is the time for us to act decisively. We must not fail the people of Darfur as we failed the people of Rwanda nearly 12 years ago and turn our backs.”

First day and a half at Brighton

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Arrived Recording my conference webcastin Brighton for conference on Saturday and rushed for briefing by Ming. Then walk out to seafront on Ming’s right arm to greet the media. The media are interested in tax – are we giving up our much loved 50p policy? – and Charles – how will his speech on Tuesday go? Ming gave a good answer – ‘there will be no clapometer’ and he robustly defended parties having real debates on substantive issues without them being “high noon” for the leadership. It’s obviously not a competition and Charles is one of our stars so I expect Charles will lay out some ideas – at least that is what I hope, as that is one of his great strengths.

And lastly – top of the pops for media questions – is this conference a test of Ming’s leadership?

Well – every conference is a test of leadership. Ming will do a good job. He is very charming, intelligent and oozes integrity from every pore – but there’s no doubt that all eyes will be upon him. That’s leadership!

Both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning see me and the rest of the Home Affairs Team (Nick Clegg and Mark Hunter) holding special sessions. The one on the Saturday with us as a team being there for our party members to question, raise issues, tell us the party’s policies and issues that they feel need addressing and inform us what they think of how the Home Affairs Team is doing!

Today’s session was a more formal consultation on the consultation paper on crime produced by the crime working group chaired by Graham Tope – my former London Assembly and Metropolitan Police Authority colleague. Crime and anti-social behaviour remain the key issues – not Labour’s endless headlines and talk about being tough, but for Lib Dems it’s what works that matters. Rhetoric doesn’t make out streets safer.

First thing this morning I did my first webcast from conference. This is a new ‘feature’ during the Lib Dem conference with daily feeds from Ming, Duncan Brack (Chair of Conference) and myself each doing a minute or two filming to go up on the party website so that members can have a taste of what each of us makes of what’s going on.

Party conference

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Off to Liberal Democrat conference today! What do I expect – other than being very busy! Well – outside of the media terming us ‘economic’ or ‘social liberals’ – their favourite sport will be will Kennedy come back and will Ming be merciless, but what I hope is that we will debate and decide policies on a whole range of issues which really matter. And the Lib Dem conference debates are still real – speeches sway votes, decisions made are followed and outcomes aren’t fixed in advance.

The one that will hit the news is the tax debate. It will be termed as to whether we ‘lose’ our old plans for a 50p on higher taxes debate. As a long time fan of the 50p rate I have followed the plans pretty carefully that propose scrapping them. (There’s been a lively debate at the new LibDemVoice website which gives a good flavour of some of the issues).

First let it be said – that the new proposals and the old ones are both redistributive, fairer etc etc. But the new proposal lifts swathes of people out of tax altogether, is far more redistributive and begins the real shift from taxing good things (like work) to taxing bad things (like pollution).

We lose the totemic 50p higher rate – but we gain what I really want – which is a fairer system that without raising taxes redistributes the tax burden better and tackles climate change.

So I am intending to vote for the policy and against the amendment that proposes retention of another similar version of our 50p. Unless the debate changes my views: after all, I am a sentient human being and there would be no point in having the debate if one could not be persuaded by arguments as yet unthought of. I know – shock horror. Not rigid. Not whipped and capable of thinking for myself.

PS I am being one of the “guinea pigs” for a set of video diaries during conference, along with Ming Campbell and Conference Committee Chair, Duncan Brack. Will be interesting to see how this works – so watch this space!