“You could feel a real buzz” - MVM’s Sally and Klina report back from Lib Dem Spring Conference in York.
It was exciting to link up with Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform (LDER) and other allies from the democracy movement at the first in-person conference for the party since before the Covid pandemic. Just as exciting for the future, electoral reform received more focus and energy than at any party conference we’ve witnessed in MVM’s history!
LDER’s stall was really busy throughout, with so many people coming by to express support for the cause. Lots, too, signalled their enthusiasm about Sort The System as we handed out flyers.
Similarly, it was standing room only at our joint fringe event with LDER and Unlock Democracy, ‘How can we restore trust in our politics?’, at which Klina featured alongside Layla Moran MP, Tom Brake and Zack Polanski. And the same was true for another event hosted by LDER and the Electoral Reform Society.
Ed Davey’s speech, then, struck just the right chord from an MVM/LDER perspective: “Our zeal for Proportional Representation remains undimmed today… Let’s remember why this matters: improving our democracy is an important end in itself, but it’s also how you build a better country.”
Throughout Conference, you could sense a shared understanding: that the coming years present the best chance for reform since the 1990s.
We hope that once the venue had emptied and everyone had returned home, that among the mementos and leaflets something else Mr Davey said stayed with everyone who was there; just three words, in fact: “make votes count”.
Heard at conference
On PR: “if it's good enough for Scotland and Northern Ireland, why isn't it good enough for the rest of us?”
On Sort The System: “this is exactly what needs to happen...we need to sort the system!”
On MVM: “I like the slogan, love the t-shirt...and (I want) my votes to count!”