Call for a proper debate on Vince Cable's reforms

And no one will be ‘bounced’ into sudden, controversial, decisions; I envisage a consultation at conference and, then, any consequent changes will take place through the party’s constitutional mechanisms.

That's Vince Cable writing in the new issue of Liberator.

His is one of two article you can download from that page, The other is by Caron Lindsay, taking issue with the immigration policy paper that will be debated at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton.

Sadly, Vince's advisers* have not read his article, because there has been an awful lot of bouncing going on.

Members of the public are already being invited to register their interest in becoming Liberal Democrat Supporters, even though the party's constitution recognises no such status.

Meanwhile, the 'consultation' emails members have received from the party have more to do with gaining assent for the proposals than seeking.

And over on Liberal Democrat Voice there has been a stream of articles from party bigwigs telling us we must support Vince's proposals.

So I am pleased to see they have also published an article by Jennie Rigg calling for a proper debate on the proposals.

We need it, not because the current Lib Dem constitution is perfect or because we should be afraid of change. We need it because the proposals themselves are unlikely to be perfect and need to be properly debated to see if they can be improved upon.

It's all in Karl Popper.

* I like the tradition of blaming 'advisers' when you are unhappy with the leader. Parliament was complaining about Charles I's advisers right up to the point they cut his head off.