The latest delay on this report is scandalous. What is he hiding and who is he protecting? When the war was launched everyone except the Labour Government and party (most of it) and Tory MPs new that it was a scam and nothing more than an excuse for the Labour Government to go to war. I think their track record was one new war every two and a half years!!!! Charles Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats at the time led the principled position while Labour and Conservatives were baying for war. The weapons did not exist – it was all about imposed regime change from outside and look what a mess that has created.

We need this report published NOW so that the truth we all know can finally be published.

Interesting article on it by Peter Oborne on Open Democracy – Click Here .

The hugely well funded out campaign by rich people seem to ignore every aspect of the EU that does not fit in with there small world approach.

If we leave the EU –

our science leadership will fall back – as shared projects across EU universities will of course not include UK universities if we leave

Our many EU trade treaties will need to be renegotiated as bi-lateral treaties and we will not get such a good deal and it will take years of renegotiating

Over 1M Brit pensioners have retired to other EU Countries – what about their health needs if we are not a member.

The campaign to stay in must win and once again Cameron’s Tories are playing with the future of the country just to keep his fractious party together.

The Conservatives are again messing up over Europe in a tacky attempt to mask their own huge internal divisions. Cameron’s ploy of renogotiation will deliver nothing sunbstantial and the vote is really an IN or OUT. Lets be honest and say so. In that case it is a huge vote and a huge decision and for the poll the voting age should be lowered to 16. A great debate at Bournemouth approved this change at the Liberal Democrat Conference. Now lets get on and pursuade the Government to implement it.

I am for IN – but recognize some of the rules need changing and the way to do that is by being a supportive constructive member rather than threatening exit if we dont get our own way.

The 5p plastic bag tax, which is being introduced in England this week, will significantly reduce the billions of one-use bags handed out in England every year.

However, as with so many things to do with the environment, the Conservatives simply do not understand the issues. In Wales and Scotland the charge is being applied to all retail outlets. Here in England smaller retail outlets will be exempted.

At a stroke the Conservatives have clouded what should have been a very simple step and introduced confusion and variations across shops. Small and medium-­sized enterprises – retailers employing fewer than 250 staff – are exempt from the English plastic bag charge.

This is absolute nonsense from the Conservatives and shows that whilst they will indulge in greenwash schemes they are not prepared to really tackle the issue. Whilst I welcome this charge as a first step, as it will significantly reduce the billions of one-use plastic bags handed out in the UK each year, it is a shame that the Government has introduced confusion by exempting smaller retail outlets. They should review the exemption as soon as possible and bring in the charge across all retail outlets as is the case in Wales and Scotland.

The day started with the issue of Fracking and the Conservative plans to bypass local democracy and steamroller through Fracking around the Country. Hopefully at our Easter Confrerence we will debate a policy to leave this gas in the ground but in the meantime the attitude of the Conservative government to local democracy is astounding. Planning applications of this type need proper and careful consideration and with the volume of interest from the public it is impossible for any Council to fully consider and respond to all the concerns raised in 13 weeks. The first few months of this government have seen many outrageous decsions but the threat to determin fracking applications in any planning authority that does not determine one within 13 weeks has to take the biscuit. This was the only debate at which I put a speakers card in but was not called. This year we have had so many first time speakers it has been really refreshing to hear so many new voices at Conference so I was not too upset.

The Youth Service debate was also good with an excellent speech from the Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Wiltshire County – Jon Hubbard . In B&NES during the last 4 years in which I lead the Council we did not reduce funding to the Youth Services. The track record of Conservative administrations around us does not lead me to think the new Conservative administration at the Council will maintain this committment.

And to end the Conference the Leaders Speech – it was inspiring. Watch it all here on Liberal Democrat Voice.

Started the day at the Christian Forum breakfast to listen to Simon Hughes talk about his life as an MP and how his faith had helped him in his role as an MP. Apart from a good breakfast it was a very enlightening talk. Bermondsay has lost a good MP with its vote in May. After that to the housing debate and vote for an ambitious Liberal Democrat housing policy. We need more social housing as well as more affordable housing for people to get onto the housing ladder. We also do not need the Conservative giveaway policy which is going to damage all our social landlords and Councils that still provide social housing. It will also affect and reduce house building thus making our housing crises worse. But as with the environment, benefits, free school meals and energy, the Conservatives simply do not understand the needs of the wider community. The speech by Norman Lamb was as ever full of content and his advocacy and committment to improving mental health care in the NHS has been awesome. The afternoon sesssion had good policy on human rights (why oh why do the Conservatives want to scrap this?????) and a memorial tribute to Charles Kennedy – a great Liberal Democrat and a sad loss.

Fringes today included Carers UK on the needs of carers, NFU and Food and Drink Federation on the need for the country to produce more of its own food and finally Liberal International on the isues of a resurgant Russia.

Liberalism is a political philoshopy that attracts parties from around the world and the family of parties works together as Liberal International  and in the EU as ALDE. Obviously here in the UK we had a bad experience at the polls in May but then other parties around the world have had similar experiences and bounced back. So the Fringe meetings had speakers from VVD (Netherlands), D66 (Netherlands), FDP (Germany) and from Georgia the Republican Party . It was really invigorating to sit in an international forum and here how Liberals across Europe have responded to the challenges of their countries. What united them was a philosophy of belief in the individual and the value of freedom and a committment to social justice and fairness. To a speaker they all urged us to work hard for a YES to the EU in the Conservative referendum scheduled for next year. They also gave us their tips for overcoming the electoral difficulties we have just experienced.

The Trident debate was one of the most passionate of the conference with strongly held views for both the multilateral approach to nuclear disarmament and the unilateral view. What we all agreed on was that we should unite about voting against the like for like replacement of the nuclear arsenal. A position the Conservatives will be taking next year and wasting £100Bn in the process. What we did not agree on was what should be the alternative. So we have set up yet another commission to devise a policy. In my view the policy is very simple – simply do not replace the Trident at all at the end of its life and instead make sure our forces are properly equiped to do the job we ask of them with conventional weapons and equipment.

We should lead by example and simply say to the world – Nuclear Weapons – No Thank You.

The vote was counted as 579 for multilateral approach to 447 for the unilateral approach.