Well, quite a lot, if the take up for tomorrow’s inaugural conference is anything to go by. It’s sold out!
Part of that is to do with the excellent line up of speakers the sandal-wearers have secured. Business Secretary Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne, Deputy Leader Simon Hughes, and former MP Dr. Evan Harris will all speak, as will doyennes of leftism Will Hutton, Neal Lawson and Richard Grayson.
The question though remains what actually are the SLF, and what do they want to achieve? Their website says:
“The Social Liberal Forum has been established by a group of Liberal Democrats who believe it is important to develop an organisation within the Liberal Democrat “umbrella” with the specific goal of celebrating and developing social liberal thought and approaches within the party.”
The organisation has undoubtedly become more high profile in recent months. This rise has unsurprisingly coincided with the Liberal Democrats being perceived as having ‘moved to the right’ after over a year of coalition with the Conservative party. They are essentially an internal protest group. Their high profile, successful, campaign against Health and Social Care Bill (proof if any was needed of the value of being in government not opposition,) also helped no end.
I support very little advocated by the SLF, but debate and internal democracy are vital components of any serious party, and their presence is absolutely part of that within the Lib Dems. However, they represent only one part of the spectrum of opinion within the party. The SLF’s increasingly high profile, as the media continue to emphasise any dissent in the ranks, can often seem to overstate (see what I did there?!) the case for soggy socialism within the party. Just because they are shouting loudest, doesn’t always mean that they carry support of a majority of Lib Dems.
I will be at the SLF Conference tomorrow, counting sandals and beards. Indeed I will be interviewing Chris Huhne, along with some other bloggers. I hope the SLF use the opportunity of this conference to put forward some interesting ideas, to be debated by the whole party. A day of coalition bashing and soul searching will be unproductive, damaging to party moral, and provide an excuse for the ‘divided Lib Dems’ headlines so beloved of the media these days.
If they SLF want to show that there is any point to them, they have to do more than just shout from the sidelines. Tomorrow is the perfect place to start.
June 17, 2011 at 12:36 pm
I agree. A day spent coalition bashing will thoroughly turn me off the SLF, i’m going along primarily as an observer, someone who doesn’t really fit in the SLF mould, but interested to see what they say.
June 17, 2011 at 1:16 pm
I agree. I can’t make it along to the SLF event. Do we need a similar group for ‘our’ bit of the party? What would we call it?
June 17, 2011 at 1:32 pm
“Soggy socialism”?! Oooooo
I’d steer clear of anyone who looks like they’re about to throw said sandals at you
June 18, 2011 at 10:59 am
I guess, on second thoughts, we could call my proposed group Liberal Vision…http://www.liberal-vision.org/
June 19, 2011 at 10:50 am
I am one of the organisers and I am pleased you came along.
The intention was that the event would be a positive contribution to the debate within the Liberal Democrats and I hope we achieved that.
I would be interested to find out your verdict.
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June 20, 2011 at 10:12 pm