Well I'm back from conference, and more or less recovered. A good conference overall, well-attended, lots of interesting fringes and debates and great to meet up with lots of other greenies. Rather a lot of arguing over procedure on the first day, which was unfortunately what Newsnight chose to focus on, though interview with Caroline Lucas was, as always, good. Good policy discussions on prostitution, social enterprises and education, we sorted out some inconsistencies in our smoking policy and I've agreed to join a policy group reviewing our international policy. I won't go into loads of detail here, as it's other green bloggers including jimjay , Peter and Philobiblon have already done so admirably.
Apparently the Lib Dems conference was sponsored by TESCO, while Labour delegates are wearing passes with 'Sky News' advertised on the straps. Green Party conference remains reassuringly free of such corporate sponsorship (and thus on a v tight budget!), though there were lots of good stalls this time such as Fair Pensions, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Gossypium. Also great discussion on environmental justice with Maria Adebowale from Capacity Global and Steve Trent from the the Environmental Justice Foundation. Steve focussed on links between human rights abuses and environmental damage, looking at devastating impact of cotton production in Uzbekistan. Interesting fact: it takes 6 pints of water to make 1 cotton bud.
Also found out some interesting stuff about sustainability in Swansea schools - the Welsh constitution has sustainability written into it and apparently they are streets ahead of us in incorporating issues of sustainability into the education system. Would like to find out more.
Forthcoming blockade of Faslane and opposition to the replacement of Trident also featured prominently.
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3 comments:
Sue,
It's not true to say that the 'Lib Dem conference' was sponsored by TESCO. They chose to sponsor one fringe event at the conference, as did dozens of other organisations.
It's no more true to say our conference was sponsored by TESCO than it is to say it was sponsored by Shelter, the CAB, the Energy Saving Trust, the NSPCC or the WWF - to name just some of the organisations that sponsored fringes at our conference.
You could always have popped along the coast (on the bus, of course!) and seen for yourself ;)
Brian
Oops, I stand corrected, sponsored a fringe, not the whole conference! Was it you guys or Labour that also had a fringe sponsored by McDonalds a while back? ;)
Tescopoly
That was Labour - enjoying the blog ;)
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