Well, day one of the conference is over and I’m just sitting in the Lobby taking stock of what we’ve heard today. I’ve enjoyed being able to get comments straight out on Twitter as things progressed during the day and it has been interesting to see the comments from other FSB twitterers as the day has progressed, I’ve certainly increased my followers today! Maybe next year they could consider having a twitter feed running beneath the screens displaying the #FSB tweets!
We’ve heard from some great speakers, Kenneth Clarke certainly didn’t beat about the bush with his comments on the government’s handling of the financial crisis thus far. With comments such as ‘government rhetoric not being in line with reality’ and ‘I’ll happily join in Hang a Banker Week if you want. If you set up stocks in Trafalgar Square I think you’d satisfy a craving’. I suppose my feeling is will the Conservatives really make a better job of it all? But I do feel it is getting increasingly likely that we will get a chance to find out in the not to distant future.
Other conference happenings today have included debating of three motions, the first two covered the idea of a nationalised bank and a government loan scheme for first time buyers. I personally voted against both, as neither really met needs and both created additional problems, I even plucked up the courage to speak up on stage against the loan scheme for first time buyers. The third motion covered EU interference with control of crop treatments, a definite winner for the floor here as there is no great love of the EU. The banning of certain treatments would result in some crops being uneconomical to grow in the UK therefore increasing the environmental impact of flying foodstuffs in. Definitely a yes vote in my book on a motion to do all we can to prevent that regulation coming in.
Finally we heard from policy about the work they have been doing, some great stuff going on but I think more needs to be recognised and done to support the work of Regional Organisers in their work and the press coverage they get locally, plus, as I shared with someone else from my region while writing this, I do feel that we sometimes spread our net too thin.
Finally though the media coverage report proved again that the FSB hasn’t quite got the internet thing yet as nothing was mentioned about online coverage. Well here’s a bit more online coverage and let’s hope that next year we see the inclusion of the FSB’s penetration in the social, blog and other online media forums!
Well time to go and get ready for the night’s entertainment, I’ll try and follow up this post, tomorrow with a reflection on the remainder of the conference. Let’s hope that the outcome of the conference really does get us all firing up the British economy!