Swansea conference

Is that the time already? Green Party conference is fast approaching (22nd to the 25th of March in Swansea) and I thought I'd take the opportunity to mention some of the things I'll be involved with whilst there (I'll have to go early Sunday though I'm afraid in order to get back for revolucionario español, never mind).

First up is council housing. I'm one of several proposing a motion opposing Arms Length Management Organisations, or ALMO's (C7 page 30) (Proposers: Matt Sellwood, Jim Jepps, Romayne Phoenix, Anne Gray and 9 others) The synopsis reads "The Government is pushing local authorities towards 'Arms Length Management Organisations' as opposed to stock retention. This motion would commit the Green Party to opposing new ALMOs, and illustrate how to make best use of them where they already exist."

I think it's important that we prevent the slippage away from public ownership under democratic control of our public services, and with the current housing crisis it is even more important that we ensure there is decent, affordable housing for all - and that means preventing the continued erosion of the council housing stock.

There is also a friendly amendment which I hope we'll see pass through unopposed.

Second there is a change to the rules on who can be elected onto GPEx, the national executive of the Green Party (D3 page 61) (Proposers Peter Cranie, Sian Berry, Jim Jepps and Matt Sellwood). Synopsis reads "This motion brings the qualification to stand for GPEx into line with the minimum qualification to stand for the Green Party as a General Election candidate."

As things currently stand you could be a Green MP/MEP but ineligible to even *stand* for a post on GPEx, that seems wrong to me. So we're hoping to reduce the eligibility from two years of party membership to one, although I hope no one has their greedy little eyes on my poor little soul. Incidentally, there is a bonkers amendment on another motion trying to increase eligibility for a particular role to eight years! Madness...

However, the blogging highlight will of course be "Green Bloggers; utilising new media" on Thursday at 1900 (venue tba). On the timetable says its called by me but actually it organised jointly between me and our illustrious internal communications officer... keep your eyes peeled for more details closer to the time.

I'm hoping to blog the conference again, although alas I'll be missing the last day (click the Green Party tag and scroll down a bit to see last year's controversies). Perhaps I'll see some of you there?