To Be a Fly on the Wall

[This post was originally written on The House of Twits]

I’ve been to two Liberal Democrat conferences now. I’ve been to the Autumn one that just happened at Bournemouth and I’ve been to the last Spring conference – in Harrogate in March.

One thing that has struck me at both of these conferences has been the equality. MPs are delegates just like anyone else. They have to fill in a speaker card if they wish to weigh in on a debate, they have one vote and they have no reserved seating. Sitting in one debate I had Tom Brake MP 3 rows in front of me and in another Paddy Ashdown took up a pew a few rows behind.

Of course, MPs are MPs. They still have egos, you get arrogant MPs and they’re inevitably very busy people so stopping them for a chat is seldom easy. But it can be done.

This spirit is epitomized at the end-of-conference Glee Club, a gathering of the good and the drunk (although, often both at the same time) to sing Liberal-themed parodies of classic songs or do a turn of stand up. This year we had Nick Clegg telling jokes about hedgehogs and Sigmund Freud (that’s two separate jokes, not one odd one), Tim Farron singing his own version of the Ting Tings’ ‘That’s Not My Name’ and Paddy Ashdown’s now traditional anecdote of two warring tribes. The atmosphere in the room at Glee is amazing – one of everyone getting stuck in, having a drink and a sing-song and not worrying about their image or position.

It was during one moment at the Glee Club, standing shoulder to shoulder with Lord Ashdown singing The People’s Flag (a satire on the Labour Party moving towards the centre) at the top of our voices, that I thought, ‘I wonder if they have something like this at the Tory or Labour conferences?’

I could be wrong, but I doubt they do. I asked Twitter, but had no response on the matter. Even if they do, I can’t help but feel that it wouldn’t have the Liberal atmosphere that we enjoy. ‘If they do,’ I thought, ‘oh to be a fly on the wall…’

Such things seem to me to be indicative of the type of party we are. We’re an inclusive party, a party that values, respects and trusts its membership. We’re a liberal party. I really don’t know what it’s like to go to a Labour conference or a Conservative conference and I never will experience it as a delegate but taking a passing interest in the Labour conference this week has given me some indication of what it’s like.

I had Gordon Brown’s speech on TV, but I was in and out of the room and couldn’t catch all of it. I was surprised to see, after his speech, a delegate speaking in a debate. I was surprised that there was anything going on at all, after Brown had just laid out his policy agenda for the forthcoming year. At Lib Dem conferences that I’ve been to, the Leaders speech has been the pinnacle of the conference, the one point that the whole week builds up to. The speech and its policy content is influenced by the policy debated, voted upon and passed on the conference floor over the week. Once it’s over, conference is over. There’s a frenzy of media activity and we all go back to our hotels, grab our bags and head home inspired by what we’ve just heard.

Imagine my surprise, then, to not only find that conference went on after the leader’s speech, but it went on for two more days after that too! Watching this reasserted my pride in the democratic structures of the Liberal Democrats. I’m proud to be in a party where the membership still matters, we’re our opinion is heard and where we still have a right to choose the direction of our party. Clegg opens the conference on the first night, makes a few policy comments but then we debate, question, engage and vote policy during the course of the 5 days. At the end of it, the leader’s speech is a summation of the conference. The party body has chosen – one member, one vote – what it wants this party to stand for. From what I can see from the Labour conference this year, the leader tells the conference mid-way through what policies they’re going to have to defend on the doorstep and then they spend the next two and a half days doing… well, whatever talking shops do.

I’m proud to be a Lib Dem, where our members are trusted with policy, where our conference is a valuable forum of debate (so much so, we actually have two a year) and where I’m asked about policy not told about policy.