Originally Posted by BonnieDundee:
Oh yes I agree with that, I thought they were talking about Westminister primarily.

If gov't is more decentralised, particularly to quite local levels then it is not more democratic particularly if it is not just a local referenda. I simply think that Westminister is far too centralised to be very democratic at all and even national referenda beat that.

The ideal is consensus direct democracy with assemblies of only a few hundred people but that is perhaps not too possible at the moment.

Unfortunately not - the Swiss seem to have got an extremely good deal with the EU because DD is written into their constitution.
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I haven't delved deeply into the documents Dilke quotes, so I can't say for sure whether Liberal Party policy towards referenda has changed or not. Were the Liberals in the past opposed to all referenda full stop, or only to referenda on non-constitutional issues? If the former, then I'm glad that their approach has been modified slightly; if the latter, then they haven't changed policy at all since that is also their policy today.

This can be seen from one of the 2007 Liberal Assembly resolutions on the website:

Motions Passed at the 2007 Liberal Party Assembly

Originally Posted by :
Referendum on the EU Reform Treaty
Assembly notes that the Liberal Party is opposed to the use of referenda save for the determination of constitutional changes. Further, Assembly recalls that the Liberal Party called for a referendum of the formerly proposed ‘Constitution for Europe’.

Accordingly the Liberal Party believes that the British people should be enabled, by a referendum, to decide the acceptance of the proposed ‘EU Reform Treaty’.

Assembly believes that a summary statement (available in minority languages) of the proposed EU Reform Treaty should be circulated to all households prior to any such referendum.



The EU Reform Treaty
Assembly believes that the EU Reform Treaty represents an attempt by the EU to force upon the peoples of Europe the provisions of the formerly proposed EU constitution, such a constitution having been rejected by popular votes in France and Holland.

Assembly, further noting that that proposed treaty contains provisions which provide for:

1. a European Head of State;
2. an EU diplomatic corps and foreign minister;
3. a common system of criminal justice and a European Public Prosecutor;
the EU having ‘legal personality’ and treaty making powers akin to a sovereign state;
4. the reduction in Britain’s voting strength in the Council of Ministers meetings by 30%;
5. resolves to campaign against the adoption of the EU Reform Treaty, whether as part of a wider referendum campaign or otherwise.

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Parties can and should change their policies to meet new circumstances.
The reason I highlight the volt face on referenda, is because the con Libs opposition to referenda, was often sited as proof of the ideological purity of their brand of liberalism. The Lib Dems’ commitment to a referendum on Maastricht was described as illiberal, opportunist, and popularist.

The 2007 Assembly resolution is a classic bit of doublethink, whilst admitting the Con Libs ‘oppose referenda on principle’ rather than policy, then promptly ditches the principle. If a referendum for Maastricht was illiberal, how can a referendum on Lisbon suddenly be liberal. (The converse also applies to the Lib Dems)
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I think the site looks great, we need to unsure that it is regularly updated but looking good so far
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Conratulations on an improvement. I got weaned onto liberalism through the site so I'll miss the old layout even though it was torturous. Very disappointed though to see they have become even less supporters of referenda than before which was a very stong good reason for me not to join at the time.
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Originally Posted by Tom Wilde:
The Liberal Party's main website is in the process of being re-vamped. I didn't realize that things were so far along, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the new look site when I dropped in just now. Here it is:

The Liberal Party Annual Assembly

What do you think of the design? The content is still being updated.

It is a nice site. I didn't look at the original mind, but I think the design is very good.
Reminds me a bit of the old UKIP website in the way that it is laid out.
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Originally Posted by Tom Wilde:
The Liberal Party's main website is in the process of being re-vamped. I didn't realize that things were so far along, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the new look site when I dropped in just now. Here it is:

The Liberal Party Annual Assembly

What do you think of the design? The content is still being updated.

Does the Liberal party support the Race Relations act?
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Originally Posted by British-Conservatism:
Does the Liberal party support the Race Relations act?

Which bit of it? Can you be more explicit?

In any case I'm no expert on the details of Liberal party policy towards particular government acts, so you can probably answer the question as well as I can by trawling through the policy docs on the website here:

The Liberal Party Policy Statements

As a party we're against racism and for decent community relations, and in particular for treating people as individuals on their own merits rather than simply as representatives of some race or religion. But then I suppose you'd expect that of a party called "The Liberal Party", wouldn't you? :-)
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The new website seems to be updated more frequently than the old one, I'm glad to say! This removes my worry that the designer had fixed up the appearance of the site but that nobody would follow up with regular updates.

I see from yesterday's update that Steve Radford is standing for election as deputy leader of the independents & small parties group of the Local Government Association.

Liberal Party Councillor Steve Radford is nominated for election to deputy chairmanship of the Independent Group of the Local Government Association
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As Mankind's warlike tendencies haven't altered in he last 100,000 years I very much doubt they'll back a Liberal World Government. For me there's only one thing worse than the BNP and that is "touchy feely Liberals"!
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