West Midlands Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference

On Saturday we had the West Midlands Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference take place in Stratford upon Avon. It was well attended and people had the opportunity to get involved in policy debates, training and hear speeches from Liberal Democrat MPs. There were also internal elections and I am pleased to say that I elected as Website and IT Officer and to English Council.

There were debates on the proposed expansion of Birmingham Airport, about exemptions from the national minimum wage for younger people in employment (my motion) and disabled access at Liberal Democrats Federal Conference. As I proposed the national minimum wage motion I had to speak first in that debate. As ever I was very nervous about addressing the audience even though it was my second speech of the day (first was at hustings).

I also helped Colin Ross deliver two training sessions one on negative campaigning and the other on setting up youth branches. The feedback on the all the sessions is good which is always good news.

We also had Birmingham Yardley MP John Hemming and Solihull MP Lorely Burt both addressing conference, it was the first West Midlands Liberal Democrat Conference since their elections earlier this year. The keynote speaker was Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough who gave an interesting and highly charged speech about the future of British politics.