WYRE FOREST LIBERAL DEMOCRATS BOURNEMOUTH 2009 CONFERENCE REPORT By Neville Farmer (Parliamentary Candidate

1.10.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 27th Sep 2009

The Lib Dems, contrary to what Andrew Neil might think, had an excellent conference in Bournemouth this month. We re-affirmed our position as the only party of ideas and I have listed some of what we achieved below.

Adrian Beavis. Samantha Walker, Mike Dixon, Neville Farmer and Lord Paddy Ashdown at the Bournemouth Conference

Wyre Forest sent a delegation of five, who all played a major role. Thanks to Samantha Walker, Adrian Beavis, Mike Dixon and Jock Gallagher for waving the Wyre Forest flag…

Lib Dems LibDems are the only major party who allow their members to elect policy. The Tories and Labour dictate from on high and their members just tag along. At Bournemouth we voted for some superb policies and fought those we didn't like. Here's what we voted for…

4 Million People to Stop Paying Tax

• We voted to raise the basic tax threshold to £10,000, taking four million low-paid workers and pensioners out of tax altogether and cutting taxes for most of us by £700 per year. This would be paid by closing numerous tax loopholes for the super-rich and big business.

Stepping Up A Gear in Environmental Protection

• We voted for a substantial new approach towards Britain's environment placing responsibilities upon utilities, manufacturers, developers and authorities to prioritise recycling, protection of green spaces, reducing noise and light pollution and enforcement against polluters.

Respecting Our Soldiers

• We voted to re-affirm the military covenant; reducing the bureaucratic costs in Whitehall to increase soldiers pay to at least that of the equivalent police or fire officers, diverting money from redundant procurement commissions to remedy the problems of equipping forces in Afghanistan, doubling the number of forces' family homes and speeding up refurbishment of the current, dilapidated stock, increasing support for their families and providing better post-conflict care.

Ending The MPs Gravy Train

• We voted to clean up politics with a new, allowing a constituency to sack an MP found guilty of serious wrong-doing, reducing the number of MPs and decentralising large parts of government so that local people control their own lives, ending multi-millionaire donations to political parties.

Restructuring Child Protection

• We voted to increase support to children in crisis, unravelling over-complex structures of child-protection authorities to reduce the chance of the Baby P tragedy happening again.

Balancing Pay For Women

• We voted to make pay structures in large companies transparent so women can see when they are being underpaid and embarrassing those companies into keeping things fair.

Reining In The Banks

• We voted to split investment and high street banking to prevent bankers using tax payers money to prop up their get-rich-quick gambles.

Meeting The Global Market Challenge

• We voted to abolish tuition fees on all part time and full time HE courses and to promote vocational training to make our workforce more competitive in the global market.

Restoring Our Civil Liberties

• We voted to reverse many of Labour's appalling attacks on our civil liberties, including the right to assembly, the removal of innocent people from the DNA Database, the abolition of control orders and ID cards scrapped.

Climate Change

• We voted to reject nuclear power as an option and to prevent the construction of all power stations that lack carbon capture, with funding to ensure greater research into green technologies and support for companies who develop them. I spoke to conference in this debate.

Regulating The Behaviour of Call-Centres and On-line shopping

• We voted in a new regulation of customer service for on-line and telephone departments in large companies and authorities. This would force them to offer a human being to speak to as one of the first choices offered and a code of practice that would stop telephone sales calls bullying people into buying. I spoke to conference in this debate.

Protecting The Severn and Using its Power

• We voted to reject the government's favoured scheme for the Severn barrage as too damaging to fisheries and wildlife but to increase spending on research into more environmentally acceptable ways of harnessing the Severn's energy.

Community Service for The Young Unemployed

• We voted to bring unemployed young people into work through community service schemes, fully funding training for vocational apprenticeships and diverting money from the wasteful VAT cut into funding an extra 10,000 university places.

Building and Refurbishing Council Houses

• We voted to stop the government skimming of council house maintenance payments to ensure that people get decent homes, to give councils the right to re-invest council rents into building council houses again.

Respecting The Right to Protest

• We voted to change the police approach to managing protests and to re-affirm the right to peaceful process as a cornerstone of democracy.

So, considering that all the press talked about was "Mansion taxes" and whether we would stick to our promise to scrap tuition fees, I think we were pretty busy. More of this can be found on the party's website www.libdems.org.uk

FRINGE DISCUSSIONS

Conference was also an opportunity for me to learn about many other subjects. Of the hundreds of fringe meetings, I chose to meet with experts and interest groups on flooding, schools, farming and rural affairs, rural development, autism, housing and homelessness, pharmacies and primary care, crime, foreign affairs and, of course, the economy, where Vince Cable gave us a fascinating briefing.

GET INVOLVED WITH MAKING WYRE FOREST A BETTER PLACE

Over the coming months, I would be happy to work with any of you to discuss ways in which we can utilise what I have learned to help Wyre Forest. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to join in.

Our campaign for the coming election has to step up a gear. What is clear is that Labour have lost their direction and the Tories never had any. George Osborne is regarded, even among city bankers, as incompetent (he has no economic training and no real-world experience. He's just David Cameron's school chum). Tories have already stated their disdain for the NHS and Labour have poured billions down the drain paying managers to push paper around rather than helping patients.

Within Wyre Forest, Richard Taylor is simply not effective enough. Everyone says he's a great MP but ask those people if they know what he's voted for and they can't answer. The other choices are Nigel Knowles, who has no idea and Mark Garnier who will simply toe the Tory line and do nothing without their say-so.

We have to step up our game if we're to make an impression next year. I ask you to support me by giving money, delivering leaflets, canvassing on the doorstep or telephone, displaying posters and telling your friends that a vote for us is a real vote for a better way. Call me on 07966 150444 or email nevillefarmer@aol.com and let's get together to stop the Thank you now.

Thankyou

Neville Farmer