Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats held the first of our three fringe meetings at Lib Dem conference in Brighton last night. The star speaker was Roger Lynch, a highly successful entrepreneur from Peckham in south London.
Lynch paid tribute to his local MP Simon Hughes for getting him involved in politics but warned the party they were lagging behind on race equality and Black political representation.
However the party’s principles remained attractive and the Liberal Democrats just needed to put them into practice more often, he added.
Other speakers at last nights’ fringe meeting (8th March) were Phil Stevens, chair of the Liberal Democrat Disability Association, and Anjua Prashar, a candidate for the European Parliament and until recently a member of EMLD’s executive.
Stevens spoke about his concern over Government proposals to repeal sections of existing Equality Acts including the ‘general duty’ on the equalities watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, to work towards the elmination of prejudice and promote good community relations.
LDDA had been working with EMLD on this issue as the ‘red tape-cutting’ Enterprise Regulation and Reform (ERR) Bill makes its’ way through Parliament.
Yesterday afternoon we learnt that the EMLD/LDDA emergency motion calling on Lib Dem parliamentarians to oppose measures that roll back existing equalities laws was rejected by Federal Conference Committee. The motion was denied the chance to make the ballot because it failed the ‘emergency’ test, members were told.
However this development is unlikely to dent the determination amongst many party activists to continue to lobby our political representatives over concerns that equality legislation is being hacked away, especially when the ERR Bill returns to the Commons.
Members of the audience at last nights’ fringe included former equalities minister Andrew Stunnel and Lord Qurban Hussein.
Don’t forget to visit the EMLD stall (exhibition stand 6) today!
Article first published on EMLD website here. Follow EMLD on Twitter @EMLibDems or visit their Facebook page: groups/EMLibDems
By Lester Holloway @brolezholloway
