Mya-RoseCraig, otherwise known as Birdgirl, one of our speakers from last year`s Green Lib Dem Conference in Nottingham is to receive an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Bristol University in February. Still only 17, this will make her the youngest Honorary Doc in the UK. WELL DONE Mya-Rose!
GLD AGM DIARY DATE 14/3/2020
Sat 19.45 York Novotel Room 5
Thanks for all the efforts you put in to the Dec 12th election.
GLD ran a new scheme of Green Heroes to promote Sustainability action and candidates that proved quite popular with short bios of a selection of our Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates with strong green records to inspire campaigning
Congratulations to our new and re-elected LibDem MPs
Spring Conference and AGM - York March 13-15th
We had a great Autumn Conference establishing a detailed practical plan for UK Climate Change Action (although not our 2040 amendment), ways to make Green projects profitable for local councils, approaches to stop fossil fuel investment, re-purposing land and the importance of Sustainable Hydrogen in the heating and transport mix.
This shorter Spring Conference is laying in more work on how to promote Green action in your local councils leading up to May elections for many and doing more in the workplace. We have Wera Hobhouse, Layla Moran and Simon Hughes helping us on this journey so do come along to conference. Come for the Saturday at reduced rate or just the evening fringes that are 'open access' including the AGM. Hope to see you there or tune in on twitter and social media. Full GLD fringe listing below.
Our postponed AGM, which had to be postponed a second time due to the General Election, is now rescheduled for the Saturday of Conference (see date time and location above). This is open to all members, no conference ticket required. We want to hear your views in answer to the reports and for you to exercise your vote for committee posts. We will also have new LibDem MP Daisy Cooper as special guest inspiring us with how we can win with Green activism. Nominations for the Exec Committee have been held open and the form is at https://greenlibdems.org.uk/AGM2019.
YORK FRINGE EVENTS - 13-15th March
Greening the Workplace - How can various stakeholders better combat Climate Change? - Green LibDems with Assoc LibDem Trade Unionists
Business =20% UK emissions. What can LDTrade Unionists, GreenLibDems, employees, business owners, elected representatives.... do to accelerate climate change action.
Sir Simon Hughes (President ALDTU), Cllr Jane Brophy (recent MEP), Martin Wiles (Bristol University), Campaign Against Climate Change TU group TBC.
Room 3 York Novotel 20.15-21.30 Fri 13th March - Refreshments
Rural District &County Green Campaigning Best Practice - Mobilising Zero Carbon Communities
Empowering local Circular Economies with toolkits and grants interacting with LEPs. Projects from Transport to Housing and Energy with excellent benefits for wellbeing and Sustainable growth.
With Layla Moran MP, Cllr Pippa Heylings, Cllr Steve Mason, Sue Jefferson (Realising Possibilities).
Room 3&4 York Novotel 13.00-14.00 Sat 14th March - Refreshments
Urban &City Green Campaigning - Hear about Key successful campaigns for Sustainable Cities.
Preparing for May Elections? Green projects can be popular from Buildings &Transport to Energy &Green Spaces. Wera Hobhouse MP leads cities' best practice with: Cllr Jane Brophy (Trafford), Cllr Adele Morris (London/LGA), Cllr Paula Widdowson (York), Cllr Kris Brown (TBC/Liverpool) and Mary Page (Bristol Mayoral Cand.).
Riverside Room York Novotel 18.15-19.15 Sat 14th March - Refreshments
GLD AGM with guest speaker Daisy Cooper MP
Come and vote on key Officer posts for our vital Green Liberal Democrat organisation and have your input on key priorities. Special appearance from our new St Albans MP Daisy to inspire us for activism coming up to May elections and beyond.
Room 5 York Novotel 19.45-21.00 Sat 14th March - Refreshments
request for articles photos and ideas please to challenge@greenlibdems.org.uk
Especially reviews of the general election - our successes and failures and lessons to be learned
The UN Climate Change Conference. Have we any GLD members in/near Glasgow who can go as observers, and/or offer beds to other GLD activists? Are you attending in another capacity? please let us know.
Climate Themed Learning Week 10th February to 14th February
If you are a teacher, lecturer, parent or work in an education institution you may be interested in the Climate Themed Learning Week supported by UCU, NEU, NUS, and the TES. The week will run from 10th February to 14th February and the aim is for schools, colleges and other education institutions to integrate into that weeks learning the theme of the climate and ecological crisis, with colleges and schools focusing on a week of learning and activities related to understanding the climate and ecological crisis. https://ctlw.web.ucu.org.uk/
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Green LibDems with Assoc of LibDem Trade Unionists
Greening the Workplace - How can businesses and trade unions work together to combat Climate Change?
Business =20%UK emissions. What can LibDem Trade Unionists, GreenLibDems, employees, business owners, elected representatives.... do to accelerate climate change action in the workplace.
Sir Simon Hughes (President ALDTU), Cllr Jane Brophy (recent MEP), Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union group TBC.
Room 3 York Novotel 20.15-21.30 Fri 13th March
Refreshments
Rural District &County Green Campaigning Best Practice - Mobilising Zero Carbon Communities
Empowering local Circular Economies with toolkits and grants interacting with LEPs. Projects from Transport to Housing and Energy with excellent benefits for wellbeing and Sustainable growth.
With Layla Moran MP, Cllr Pippa Heylings, Cllr Steve Mason, Sue Jefferson (Realising Possibilities).
Room 3 & 4 York Novotel 13.00-14.00 Sat 14th March
Refreshments
Urban &City Green Campaigning - Hear about Key successful campaigns for Sustainable Cities.
Preparing for May Elections? Green projects can be popular from Buildings &Transport to Energy &Green Spaces. Wera Hobhouse MP leads speakers from UK cities on best practice: CllrAdele Morris (London/LGA), CllrPaula Widdowson (York), CllrRichard Kemp (TBC/Liverpool) and Mary Page (Bristol).
Riverside Room York Novotel 18.15-19.15 Sat 14th March
Come and vote on key Officer posts for our vital GreenLibDem organisation and have your input on key priorities. Special appearance from our new St Albans MP Daisy to inspire us for activism coming up to May elections and beyond.
The observant amongst you will perhaps recall that, although I did not quite manage to make it onto the Federal Conference Committee in the recent elections, I was actually "Last Man Standing" in the single transferable vote as the counts progressed! Last one dropped!
Calling Green Lib Dems who will be attending the Spring Conference in York…
The much-delayed Annual General Meeting of the Green Liberal Democrats will be held in York on the evening of Saturday 14th March at 19.45 in room 5 of the Novotel Hotel.
As well as the perfectly sound reasons of electing the new Executive Committee and hearing a leading speaker (tba), normal for an annual general meeting, of course, I would like to emphasise three additional reasons for being there. These are all to do with the Campaign Strategy of GLD - and as Vice Chair (Campaigns) I feel a particular responsibility for raising these issues with you.
I feel sure you have been moved, like me, by some of the recent sights we have seen on TV and in the newspapers of Australia on fire, as it has been for months. We worried when the Amazon lost nearly a million hectares to fires starting last January. We continued to be concerned as over two and a half million hectares of Siberian Steppes were lost to ash later in the year. Now Australia is facing a loss of more than five million hectares of bushland, including many homes and many human lives already - as well as huge losses of animal life, including, perhaps whole species being lost to the flames.
In 6 seats, we were less than a thousand votes away from winning. That is agonising. Some of these campaigns saw increases in vote share of 20-30% - an extraordinary leap forward, achieved by hard work from fantastic teams.
We lost three outstanding MPs. Jane Dodds in Brecon and Radnorshire, Tom Brake in Carshalton and Wallington and of course, Jo Swinson in East Dunbartonshire.
We are still coming to terms with these three results. Jo missed out by just 149 votes. To have lost our Leader so soon after she was elected is a very bitter blow.
And on top of all that, we have a Boris Johnson majority Government.
Despite these disappointments, we got 1.2 million more votes yesterday than in the last General Election. Our vote was up 4% across the country. We have now established ourselves in close second places in a string of seats. We held three of our Scottish seats despite the SNP's best efforts, and kept three London MPs against the Tory surge.
We elected 11 brilliant MPs:
Alistair Carmichael in Orkney and Shetland
Christine Jardine in Edinburgh West
Daisy Cooper in St Albans
Ed Davey in Kingston and Surbiton
Jamie Stone in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Layla Moran in Oxford West and Abingdon
Munira Wilson in Twickenham, taking over from Vince Cable
Sarah Olney in Richmond Park, retaking the seat from the Conservatives
Tim Farron in Westmorland and Lonsdale
Wendy Chamberlain in North East Fife - which we lost by 2 votes last time!
Wera Hobhouse in Bath
That is a talented team and I know they will make their voices heard in Parliament against the new Conservative Government.
After any election, there are lessons to learn - and believe me, we will be thinking a lot about our results over the next weeks and months. But we were honest and open with voters about our vision, and I stand by that decision.
Let's all get some sleep and some rest. And then let's get ready to hold this Prime Minister to account.
This is the aim of our Liberal Democrat candidate for Bristol South, Andrew Brown. Apparently a safe Labour seat since the 1930s, Andrew hopes to channel the former Liberal MPs who held the seat from 1906 to 1929. It is very clear that Andrew has a strong sense of social justice and he took part in Bristol's 'Sleep-Out' in October this year raising funds for the cause with a Just Giving page.
Well, here we are on Election Day 2019. We hope you have found our series of profiles of some of our greenest Liberal Democrat candidates useful in seeing them in a different light than the light of Brexit.
Whatever the outcome of this General Election we believe that the dangers inherent in the Climate Catastrophe will be worse than anything Brexit might bring, or the hung parliament which will no doubt take another few months at least of focus away from the Climate Change problems!
