'Speaker's Seat' motion carried overwhelmingly

The local party's motion's motion to Regional Conference in Oxford (Oxford Brookes University, Saturday, October 30) on the 'Speaker's Seat' issue was carried overwhelmingly with only one vote against. The motion was proposed by Bette Melling, with Llew Monger providing the summing up.

They reiterated the points that it was fundamentally unfair for voters of the major parties to be denied the right to vote for the candidate of their choice, because of a loosely observed convention, and that the issue be resolved with the creation of a separate seat of the Speaker, with a by-election called in the seat that he or she vacated.

There were two speakers in favour of the motion from adjoining constituencies, who said they had also been approached by Buckingham constituency voters asking why they were not able to vote for the party of their choice at the recent general election.

One delegate voted against the motion.

The local party will now try to build on this regional support and look to have the matter taken up once more within the higher echelons of the Party.