miss_s_b: (Politics: Goth Lib Dems)
[personal profile] miss_s_b
You may have noticed that the previous two posts were somewhat light on my usual "we debated this motion, and I voted this way on it" details. That's mostly because after I had done the reporting-back-from-FCC bits (which I pledged to do upon my candidacy for FCC - I keep my promises, me. Mostly...) the posts were already stupidly long, but also in part because my lovely friend Andrew has done an excellent summary of the salient points here, and given that I am his evil twin (or he is mine - honestly, basically the only difference between us is that I really like beards and he merely has one) I don't feel the need to reiterate his points.

For the avoidance of doubt, though, here is how I voted:
  • Emergency Motions Ballot: can't actually remember, except that I put the second Scottish referendum motion bottom (we can't mandate our MPs how to vote so it was utterly pointless, AND it's not up to English MPs to tell Scotland what to do anyway IMHO) and the Trump one next to bottom (he's not coming till October. Put a (better drafted) motion in for Autumn conference, when it will be a live and salient issue). The others I was happy to see a debate on.

  • A Rational Approach to Harm Reduction (aka the Sex Work Motion): I voted against the (mildly wrecking) amendment and for the unamended motion

  • Tackling Overcrowding in the Prison System: I voted for the amendment and the motion.

  • Britain in the EU: I went for lunch during this motion as hell would freeze over before anyone voted against it, and during the scheduled lunch break I would be prepping to aide in the health and social care debate.

  • Crisis in health and social care: I voted for the amendment, and then for the motion as amended, from my shiny shiny "seat reserved for FCC Hall Aide" seat.

  • The Biennial Trident Fudge: I Paired with Alisdair and went to the pub since we would have voted exactly oppositely on both the motion and amendment and thus cancelled each other out. The England/Ireland match was nailbiting.

  • Emergency motion: Unaccompanied Child Asylum Seekers: I voted in favour of us taking in more of them.

  • Faith Schools: We had to vote between three options, then for the amendment, then for the motion as amended or not with whichever option we voted for. I'm going to use Andrew's characterisations here: I voted against "YAY faith schools" & for "Faith schools should be restricted as much as humanly possible without actually banning them". Then I voted for "Faith schools should be restricted as much as humanly possible without actually banning them" and against the horrible and nonsensical fudge which tried to split the difference between the first two. Then I voted for the "ban all faith schools" amendment, but not enough other people did, so it fell. Then I voted for the motion unamended with the option "Faith schools should be restricted as much as humanly possible without actually banning them" being the winning option. And I am not ashamed to admit to shedding a tear during Sarah Brown (Cambridge)'s very moving speech. I am glad Julian and Zoe were there to give her hugs when she had finished.

    As you can tell, this was quite a complicated vote. Small FCC note: I am glad Geoff Payne was chairing it. Although I have had my disagreements with him, he has just the right sort of forensic, nitpicky, legal mind for this kind of thing, and is a very clear and non-waffly chair. He's one of only about four people I would trust with such a contentious debate with so many options, and two of them are no longer on FCC.

  • Associated Membership of the EU: I voted in favour.
I think that covers everything. So... after three long posts... Any questions?

Date: Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017 04:17 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] theandrewhickey
My voting was pretty much the same, except I did go to vote on the Trident motion as I had no-one to pair with (I voted for Julian's amendment, and can't remember how I voted on the fudge, because it genuinely doesn't matter, but having a strong policy would have mattered).

I actually didn't put the ScotRef one bottom -- I don't remember the wording now, but I remember the motion being just something like "federal party doesn't have to share the Scottish party's view", and while I don't want to tell the Scottish party what to think, I do think there's a debate to be had about what the federal party's position should be, though I'd be neutral in that debate. I put the motion about pubs and business tax and suchlike bottom, because it's motherhood and apple pie stuff we shouldn't be debating in an emergency motion, the Trump one fourth because it's not like the party's views on him are unknown, Scottish one third, the one I don't remember but that seemed like a proper emergency motion second, and the child asylum seekers first.

Otherwise my voting (and my not-bothering) was absolutely identical to yours.

Date: Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017 07:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] https://www.complicity.co.uk/blog/
I'm curious as to who the other FCC member you'd have trusted with the Faith Schools debate is now... I'm guessing Andrew?

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