The deadline for autumn conference motions is looming (30 June to be precise), so we don’t have much time.  But what should the Social Liberal Forum be championing to get onto the agenda?  Here are some ideas:

• Secondary education – academies and free schools in particular – appears to be a simmering issue (see John Howson’s article on the SLF website).  Should we push for ensuring that the academies system is brought under greater local control and scrutiny?  What else?
• Higher education: tuitions fees is clearly a big issue.  Is there a way of squaring the circle? Move towards a graduate tax?
• Wealth taxation: the Tories struck anything even vaguely resembling a wealth tax from the coalition agreement.  This is an area in which the Lib Dems and Tories have a clear difference.  Is now the time to set out a strategy to make it clear we are a distinctive party?
• The Office of Budget Responsibility: as we spelt out in the SLF letter to Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander, the OBR doesn’t currently have monitoring socio-economic inequality written into its terms of reference, despite the Treasury having to consider this under the Equality Act 2010. What’s more, despite being formally independent, its members are directly appointed by the Chancellor.  Shouldn’t it be subject to a confirmation hearing by the Treasury select committee (or, better yet, appointed by parliament in the same way that the Electoral Commission is)?

These are just a handful of ideas from off the top of my head.  Feedback welcome on these – as of course are other ideas.  Add your comments below.

Conference, I am speaking in favour of lines 22-23: “a fair and sustainable economy means delivering growth that lasts, through… honesty about the tough choices needed to cut the deficit and put the public finances back in order without damaging vital public services.”

I couldn’t agree more. This is at the heart of how will distinguish ourselves from Labour and the Conservatives during the election.

What I would ask for though, is a little more clarity and demonstration of honesty about what those tough choices will be.

First, how quickly will we try to reduce the deficit? Nobody is saying that we don’t have to take serious steps to address it. Of course we do. But we don’t need to prioritise it over our long term sustainability, services and welfare provision.

I’m an economic historian. If you take a long view, this crisis is not unprecedented, as some politicians will tell you. Britain has had acute public sector deficits before. So have most countries. So we can take a look at what strategies have been tried before and what has worked. The most effective governments have been those that have eased deficits down gradually while still investing in the economy. It does not work to cut and slash at the deficit and public services into the bargain.

Those of you who were at the Q&A with Nick Clegg yesterday will know that I asked him whether the Lib Dem strategy is to try and reduce the deficit within one parliament or, more responsibly, over two or even three. I didn’t get an answer then, so I’m asking again.

Second, we need to be clear that a sensible way to attack the deficit must be a full package of measures, not just cuts. We mustn’t rule out the option of tax rises.

There are a lot of journalists here today. I don’t think they’ve come to listen to me. They want to know what Nick will say in his speech. These journalists have been busy this week, haven’t they? One of them wrote that Nick had told them that he ruled out tax rises – that spending cuts were our only policy in relation to the deficit.

I gather that the official line on this is that he “misspoke” – which means he said it but he didn’t mean it. I appeal to you Nick: say it isn’t so!

It’s not too late. I’m sure the speech is already written. I’m not a journalist and certainly not one of Nick’s speechwriters, so I haven’t seen it. But those same journalists will be sitting in here in an hour or so, probably in the back row, with copies of the script on their laps. When Nick speaks, they’ll cross out every word in it that he doesn’t say, and add in anything he does say that isn’t there.

So please, Nick, give them something to write in: “Lib Dems don’t rule out future tax increases, because we will never do anything to harm vital public services.”

David Hall-Matthews is the Chair of the Social Liberal Forum.

We’ll have more up about conference and where the organisation goes from here soon but in the meantime I just wanted to write a short note to thank everyone for their enthusiasm and inspiration. It really means a lot.

With Parliament now in recess for the rest of the summer, the Social Liberal Forum is gearing up for the conference season. We are also looking to growing our network, especially outside London. But to do that, we need your help. Would you like a speaker for your local party or student group? Would you like to know if there are any other social liberals living near you? Now is the ideal time to get involved.

A Fresh Start – what do you think?

The Lib Dems’ pre-manifesto A Fresh Start for Britain: Choosing A Different, Better Future was published last week. Over on Lib Dem Voice, Social Liberal Forum Director Matthew Sowemimo offers his view.

As this document will form the basis of the party’s next general election manifesto, it is important that it is thorougly and widely debate. If you have a view, send it to freshdebate@socialliberal.net and we will consider publishing it.

Building our network

The Social Liberal Forum has set up a new social network to help us keep in touch, develop activities across the UK and open up the organisation. It is still in the early stages of development but you can help it grow. Please register on it and say hello.

The new social network can be found at: http://socialliberal.ning.com/

Want a speaker?

If your local party or student branch would like someone from the Social Liberal Forum to speak at one of your meetings this autumn, please email speakers@socialliberal.net and we will do our best to meet your request.

The launch of the Social Liberal Forum in Harrogate was a truly excellent meeting – I don’t think I have ever come across so much enthusiasm at such an event.

Kicking off the discussions, Matthew Sowemimo spoke with great conviction about the importance of tackling child poverty in a far more ambitious way than Labour have done. The main speaker at the event, Steve Webb told his personal story about why he joined the Liberal Democrats. He argued that we all join the party with specific enthusiasms and causes for which we want to fight, and he said that we need to restore some of the passion to the way we tell people what we stand for.

A wide range of contributions came from those attending the meeting. These included: the need to examine the best ways to tackle anti-social behaviour; putting industrial democracy back at the forefront of our economic policies; giving a higher profile to fuel poverty; the need to spend more on social housing; and a desire to talk about policy to those with similar perspectives from outside the Liberal Democrats. Lynne Featherstone made a powerful contribution arguing that in the current economic crisis, we need to articulate a vision which shows we don’t just want to go back to how things were before the crisis, but that we offer a very different, and better, future.

The engagement of party members in the overall aims of the SLF was really encouraging, and in the months to come, we will be working on developing the ideas put forward.

To give people some food for thought, we have also republished Steve and Jo Holland’s article on Communicating Social Liberalism from Reinventing the State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century on the Social Liberal Forum website (the full Reinventing the State will be back in print next month).

If you can’t attend this Wednesday, Steve has said he will be developing a short talking points briefing which can be adapted for any local party discussion evening. This will be published on the Social Liberal Forum website soon.

Finally, we hope to see you at our fringe meeting at Harrogate Spring Conference, where you can learn more about why we have decided to set up the Social Liberal Forum and our plans for the next few months.

PS Our Ideas Factory is starting to result in some interesting debates. Please do add your own feedback – and send us your own ideas!