Sue Doughty's Conference Briefing

6.36.33pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 14th Sep 2006

Sue Doughty and many delegates from Guildford will be attending the annual conference in Brighton which starts on Sunday and runs through until Thursday 21st September.

With a packed agenda and a number of key fringe meetings the conference will the be first led by new leader Ming Campbell and gives members the opportunity to debate key issues, particularly on tax and the environment.

Sue has welcomed the fresh thinking by the party on tax. She said "It has not always been easy for colleagues in other parts of the country to understand the real problems experienced by the need for two people to work full time to buy a house leading to high income but little spare cash. Our proposals to reduce income tax and for a fairer and realistic local income tax are now becoming meaningful here in Guildford. "A former Shadow Environment Minister, Sue is also keen on the increased environmental taxation and other proposals to deal with pollution.

Sue will be busy at conference. The party debates Water on Tuesday afternoon and she will be summing up in that debate. She said "I am deeply worried that the government has failed to recognise the real problems that will be caused by its house building programme in the South East. They haven't been tough enough on water companies who allow leakage to continue, they aren't doing enough to reduce industrial water usage and the support given for the installation of water saving devices is derisory." She added "Thames Water has got away for years with failing to deal with leakage in the South East and yet they are now proposing to submerge part of Oxfordshire for a reservoir and to build a desert strength desalination plant in Barking. The government must force the regulator to take action."

On the Monday evening of conference ahead of the debate on Ethical Investment Sue will be chairing a discussion hosted by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. The Ethical Investment debate will draw attention to the need for Fair Trade policies and to the need for councillors to be aware of what investments are being made in their name. Only recently it was learned that Surrey County Council's pension fund has invested in the arms trade including companies making cluster bombs. Sue, who has often spoken against Britain's continued investment in cluster bombs said:

"I hope that I will get the chance to speak out in this debate. Council investment and purchasing must be ethical and Lib Dems have a responsibility to do all they can to ensure that investments are ethically managed."

As President of Women Liberal Democrats Sue will be chairing a key fringe meeting on equality of representation by women in Parliament. A regular speaker on women in politics, Sue is concerned about the small proportion of women in Parliament, and recognised that there is a real need in both the Lib Dems and the Conservative parties to improve the situation.

On Wednesday ahead of the government's completion of the Waste Strategy Review later this year, Sue will be chairing a meeting on what government needs to be doing to reduce the amount that business sends to waste.

Thursday of course is the day of the leader's speech and Sue, like other members will be looking forward to this. She said "We have a leader who has a passion for justice, for ending poverty, for international freedom and fairness and for a clear plan to manage and combat climate change. With other parties bankrupt of ideas, or full of hot air, this will be a speech based on reality and practicality but one to give hope."