The LibDem Conference Rally

The Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth is reportedly the best-attended ever, and certainly the traditional opening rally last night was packed, including many new faces. One of the thousands of new party members, a 19-year student from Bristol called Amy, followed party president Sal Brinton as a speaker, describing her own journey into membership. In contrast, the candidate for Mayor of London, Caroline Pidgeon, has been in the party for 25 years and has been making waves as a member of the London Assembly, holding Mayor Boris Johnson to account. In her speech, she emphasized how the elections next May in London, Wales and Scotland can be the springboard for the LibDemFightBack, which is the slogan of this conference. One of her GLA running mates, Zack Polanski, provided the rally’s main entertainment, along with the multiracial London gospel choir that he sings in. Tim Pickstone from the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC) reminded us that many council seats up and down the country will also be up for grabs next May. He then introduced someone he had signed up as a young student, Tim Farron — now transformed into Leader, rather than the comedy warm-up act that he has been in previous conferences. He particularly mentioned the forthcoming EU referendum and claimed for the Liberal Democrats the role as the radical but sensible opposition to the Conservative government, which in just four months has overthrown many if the good things brought in over the past five years when the LibDems were part of the Coslition government.

London LibDems’ GLA Hustings

Last night, at Hamilton House in Camden, London Liberal Democrats held a hustings for shortlisted candidates who had put themselves forward to be selected for the “top-up” list of 11 members of the London Assembly (the other 14 being elected in geographical constituencies). As there were 16 hopefuls and all had to make short presentations as well as answer a few questions it was quite a marathon affair, but aided by the grace and good humour of the Chair, Baroness (Liz) Barker. One candidate, Duwayne Brooks, challenged the worth of asking candidates about elements of policy and walked out half way through, while another, Annabel Mullin, was legitimately absent because of a work commitment abroad, but the others battled on bravely. Housing came across as the biggest single issue of concern in London, with other oft-mentioned subjects including transport and the environment. We currently have just two GLA members (Caroline Pidgeon and Stephen Knight, both of whom are standing for re-election) but in the past we have had as many as five, so it is a realistic goal as part of the LibDem fightback to hope for a minimum of three in 2016, now the Party is not tainted by being in coalition with the Conservatives. Given London’s population profile, it is to be hoped that at least one of our successful candidates should be from an ethnic minority and certainly there was a very diverse choice on offer last night with almost half of the shortlisted candidates not being Anglo-Saxon white. All London LibDems members can vote for the order of the GLA list via a quick and easy electronic link that is already up and running. Caroline Pidgeon is also standing as the Party’s candidate for London Mayor and is unopposed for that.

The full list of candidates is: Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, Annabel Mullin, Ben Mathis, Caroline Pidgeon, Dawn Barnes, Duwayne Brooks, Emily Davey, Marisha Ray, Mark Platt, Merlene Emerson, Pauline Pearce, Rob Blackie, Stephen Knight, Teena Lashmore, Zack Polanski.