Lib Dem Conference: Delegates vote to take the fight to Labour

Despite their leader's call for closer co-operation with the Government , delegates put themselves at odds with the Blair project. Fran Abrams examines the policy gap

In two debates that came after Paddy Ashdown urged representatives to move forward constructively with the Government, the conference voted to continue opposition to Labour.

First came a discussion of the Government's plans for a devolved London authority headed by an elected mayor. Although the Liberal Democrats want a new London government they voted to continue to campaign against a mayor.

They passed a motion calling for full proposals to be published in a bill before a planned referendum, for greater powers for the new body and for opposition to the mayor.

Paul Farthing, who is a councillor in London and who moved the motion, said the city needed regional government but not of Labour's kind.

"The presidential style model proposed by Labour risks the paralysis of government we often witness between the president of the United States and Congress. Forget strong government, forget weak government. I want a effective government," he said.

Representatives later heard that the "list" system of proportional representation proposed for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments - in which some candidates are directly elected and others are chosen by parties on a proportional basis - would be unfair.

The government's proposed electoral commission should be told by the Liberal Democrats that any new proportional system should be by Single Transferable Vote, in which losers' votes are redistributed.

Adrian Collett, Liberal Democrat leader on Hampshire County Council, said electoral deals would be done in "smoke-filled rooms" under Labour's plans.

"Either we mean what we said for all these years that electoral reform is about making our democracy meaningful again, about putting it into the hands of the people," he said, "...or we are just the self-seeking bunch of political cynics that our opponents in the media always said we were."