West Midlands Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference

7.00.00pm GMT Sat 12th Nov 2005

Phil Willis MP addressing the West Midlands Regional Conference

Stratford upon Avon's tourist trade must have been delighted when they spotted over 200 people from all parts of the West Midlands heading towards Ann Hathaway's cottage in mid November. But a nearby school was the venue for the West Midlands Region's AGM and Autumn Conference which is where they all went.

Conference debated motions on the way the national minimum wage affects young people and the proposed second runway for Birmingham airport. Not for the first time conference was told of inadequate access for disabled members at the Federal conferences. This year's conference in Blackpool was said to be the worst ever with as many as 50% of venues inaccessible. The Federal Conference Committee was accused of flouting Party policy and law breaking with their persistent disregard for disabled members.

Colin Ross and Adam Teladia training at Regional Conference

There was a variety of training sessions on recruitment, team building, planning your political career, PPERA, youth branches and becoming an Agent. Feed back from representatives shows just how much these training sessions are appreciated.

John Hemming MP

The Region's two new MPs, John Hemming (Birmingham Yardley) and Lorely Burt (Solihull) received a rapturous reception from conference. They both talked about their first six months in Parliament and how a single MP can make a difference. John said his efforts mean that watch dog regulators will now become more accountable and OFCOM will take action against call centres whose computers generate silent phone calls. Lorely has introduced a bill (nicknamed Lorely's Law) which, if it gets parliamentary approval, would control the sale of parkland and gardens for development.

Lorely Burt MP

Conference was held only days after Tony Blair's government suffered its first defeats in parliament when it lost its attempt to allow the police to hold suspects for 90 days without charge. We were able to hear first hand accounts of what it was like to be there.

The day was rounded off with a first class speech from Phil Willis, MP for Harrogate. He was humorous, entertaining but above all very informative. He warned us that in selecting their new leader the Tories looked as if they would reject Mrs Thatcher's style of conviction politics and follow a Blairist line of seemingly attractive sound bites. By the time the electorate realised that there was no substance behind the sound bites the damage would be done and there would be no unpopular war for us to oppose.