December 2018 newsletter
Reminder - People's Lobby for PR, December 11, 12 noon at Westminster
The last major pro-reform event of 2018 is only days away - it's a Make Votes Matter initiative, taking the case for reform directly to Westminster. Please click below to register.
Show your support for fair votes by coming to the People's Lobby for PR
More information about what will happen on the day is available here.
2019 priorities
Peter Hirst writes: As an LDER Executive newcomer, I propose broadening our remit to include the Party's long-standing commitment to a written constitution, created by a Citizen's Assembly or Jury.
As some of you might know, the charity Involve, is dedicated to putting people at the heart of our democracy. Its website declares on its front page, "We're the UK's leading public participation charity, on a mission to put people at the heart of decision-making."
It believes that decision making in the UK needs to be more open, participatory and deliberative.
To this end it has, with others, recently organised Citizens' Assemblies on Brexit, Social Care and Northern Ireland with full details on their website. It also has a collaboration with the Electoral Reform Society, seeking to change our method of voting in a collaborative rather than divisive and confrontational way.
Typically, a Citizens' Jury involves between 100 and 250 randomly selected citizens of the affected area who come together over two weekends. The process involves gathering information, discussing it and deciding on recommendations. This is done either by voting or consensus.
Proposal: LDER and the party would benefit by working with Involve (and others) to improve democratic governance and campaign for a full written constitution, compiled along the lines above. A next step could be for LDER to co-organise a conference fringe meeting to generate wider interest in this important component of a properly functioning representative democracy.
Any views/feedback on Peter's proposal? Let us know!
The 2019 team
Our Autumn Brighton Conference stall was busy as ever. We gathered on-stall feedback on key messaging to make the benefits of voting reform more immediate to the electorate (we'll report back on this next time) and our members and supporters sign ups now number nearly 1,000. That's great, but do get party friends and colleagues to join us.
New exec member Sarah Lewis led an energetic Your Liberal Britain stand discussion on electoral reform, with Make Votes Matter's Klina Jordan as guest speaker.
We also elected the LDER 18/19 executive at our AGM:
Chair: Denis Mollison
Secretary: Penny Goodman
Treasurer: Richard Lawrie
Membership: Martin Walker*
Exec members: Crispin Allard, Peter Hirst, Sarah Lewis, Helen Parker, Keith Sharp
Keith was subsequently elected Vice Chair by the executive.
Particular thanks go to Crispin, who reverts to an exec member after being chair for six of the past seven years and who reconstituted LDER in its present form. He is now Chair of his local party and it's great to have him continue as an exec member.
*Vacancy! - Membership Officer
Since Brighton, Martin has had to step down due to work commitments. Martin leaves with our membership and supporters lists in good shape, so our thanks go to him.
But we now seek to co-opt a new Membership Secretary onto the exec; someone to continue to keep our membership and supporters database up to date and to notify members when annual subs fall due.
Could YOU take up this simple but crucial role? If you'd like to join or to discuss this, please contact us on info@lder.org
LDER Executive