Jim Hancock: Full conferences must come to Liverpool

Mar 10 2008 by Jim Hancock, Liverpool Daily Post

IT WAS important that Lib- Dem leader Nick Clegg showed some “cojones” at Liverpool’s Arena and Convention Centre yesterday. After all, he’d “cojoned” things up good and proper during the Commons vote last week on the European referendum.

Getting the mild-mannered MP for Southport, John Pugh, to mutiny within weeks of Clegg becoming leader took some doing. But there was Mr Pugh, and 12 others, supporting a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Mr Clegg wanted his MPs to abstain in a sulk for not getting a referendum on the wider issue of whether we should be in Europe at all. As he explained at his party’s spring conference at the city’s spanking new venue, he now expects Baroness Shirley Williams of Crosby, and her fellow Lib-Dem peers, to do the same when the issue comes before their Lordships.

Europe has been good for Merseyside, although we are now putting the years of handouts behind us.

But Europe is a real nightmare for politicians. It’s top of very few voters’ shopping list of issues that matter, but for the parties it has often been the dynamite stick in their rock of unity.

It was Labour’s splits on the issue that gave us our only referendum on the Common Market in 1975. It was partly responsible for bringing down Mrs No! No! No! Thatcher in 1990.

The Lib-Dems have always had the advantage of consistency on Europe. They have been proud of their unequivocal support for the European project. So it has not been the best of starts for Mr Clegg, to find his party most damaged last week by the messy issue of Europe.

Apart from that, the 1,500 Lib- Dem delegates seemed to enjoy being the first political party to enjoy the excellent facilities of the new convention centre.

Many organisations are booked in, but it’s a fact that political conferences in the ACC are always going to attract more publicity for Merseyside than the National Convention of Chiropodists. Now I’ve put my foot in it!

The political conferences are moving away from the traditional resorts where the attraction was the cheap out-of-season accommodation.

Now delegates prefer to spill out into a city centre of an evening, rather than a chilly prom.

Birmingham, and a certain city 30 miles away, are hosting the Tory and Labour main conferences this autumn, but Liverpool’s turn must come.

The spring conference gave a chance for the embattled (how we commentators love that word) leader of the city council, Warren Bradley, to co-host the eve of conference rally. The genial fireman’s co-host was the diminutive London MP, Sarah Teather. They made a great team. It was a welcome break for Cllr Bradley, who has been complaining of the political heat recently.

Whether the national conference coming here will give the local Lib- Dems a bounce for the May elections remains to be seen. But at least the party had the “cojones” to choose Liverpool, and that’s all that matters.