Cabinet Ministers at Regional Conference

History was made on Saturday 16th October when 2 Liberal Democrat Cabinet Ministers spoke to the North East Regional Conference.

Chris Huhne, Environment Secretary, talked of the disgrace of the UK being 25th out of 27 countries in the EU for installed renewables and Labour presiding over a stand off between nuclear and renewable energy with the result that neither of them moved ahead. He reminded us that one of the most important things we must do is to reduce energy use and that the government's contribution to that is the Green Deal - jobs being created up and down the country in installing insulation, solar panels, modern heating and so on.

Michael Moore talked of campaigning and negotiating coalition deals, much of which was for members' ears only! But he did remind us that the cuts in public expenditure will roll it back to the level at the end of Tony Blair's premiership, nowhere near as far back as the levels of the 1980s or 1920s as some are suggesting.

Ian Swales, MP for Redcar, talked of the transition from local campaigner to Member of Parliament. The journey was hard, exciting and rewarding. He inspired us all to keep campaigning and never give up - watch out next May! He then joined a panel of the other NE Lib Dem parliamentarians to answer questions on subjects as diverse as European funding, Local Enterprise Partnerships and University funding.

The day ended with a discussion on the Fairer Votes referendum next May and the campaign to make sure that for the next general election everyone's vote should count equally, with MPs being more accountable to their electorate.