The Last Month - Newsletter for November 2021
The Last Month - November
We said that you would hear more from us. This is the debut edition of 'The Last Month', a new monthly email describing just what we've been getting up to on your behalf.
Be sure to forward this to share how the Liberal Democrats are delivering on green action!
It's been a bumper month for GLD, and our most instrumental in a long time.
In Brief:
- Councillor Pippa Heylings successfully advocated for the inclusion of local government within the Glasgow Climate Pact
- Welcomed the Green Liberal Democrats' first full-time staff member; Political Assistant Francis Thomas
- Delivered green motions and press releases to councillors
- Launched Greener, Cleaner, Healthier campaign for May 22 Local Elections
- Reappraised our accredited candidate system to improve member experiences
- Opened consultation for our 2022 organisational strategy
- Record month on Twitter for engagement and followers
- Produced and distributed posters for Nov 6th Marches
- Began Climate Justice motion for Spring Conference
- Reformed our membership engagement approach and email schedule
- GLD Executive member Tahir Maher is standing for Vice President
The biggest win came courtesy of our own (PPC for target seat South Cambridgeshire) Councillor Pippa Heylings. On the floor of the COP26 Blue Zone she bestowed upon the UK Presidency the importance of local government within any decarbonising efforts. You can watch the full video of her speech here. Thanks to her negotiations with the LGA and LGMA, the Glasgow Climate Pact formalised 'the urgent need for multilevel and cooperative action'.
Given his academic background in sustainable local government, our Political Assistant Francis has been working with the folks at the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners (ALDC) to distribute a variety of Green Liberal Democrat council motions and campaign packs for delivering more sustainable Local Authorities. In the week of the sewage scandal news, he produced a 'Motion to Save our Rivers'; with councils throughout the country calling on the Westminster government to properly fund environmental protection and regulatory agencies, open a dialogue with regional farmers unions on best practices, and plan infrastructure to reduce particulate run-off.
In the first week back from COP26 and in light of Pippa's successful negotiations, Francis produced and delivered a motion and press release to councillors calling for 'multilevel cooperation' between authorities sharing a geographical remit and national government. Parish, town, city and county councils must operate across partisan and administrative boundaries to deliver #GreenerCleanerHealthier communities. He also attended ALDC's Kickstart to discuss the role that the Green Liberal Democrats can play
These motions are both available on the new 'Resources' members-only tab on the site, which will populate as we work with you to deliver for our members. We welcome any submissions on what would be most valuable to yourself, your local party, or local authority.
We launched our Greener, Cleaner, Healthier campaign in efforts to provide a significant environmental apparatus for the party in the May 2022 local elections. Many have raised the need to squeeze Green Party votes in target wards, and we are working with our network of experienced campaigners to identify best practice. With only 6 months until May 2022, we are aware that we must get this right, few elections could be as important. The executive began a reappraisal of the accreditation process for Green Liberal Democrat candidates and will be launching a streamlined approach in the new year that offers significant value to candidates; templates, bulk buys, messaging guides and issue research.
We have had a great month on Twitter. We reached 250,000 impressions - up 17x from an average of 15,000 per month for the rest of 2021 - gained 200 followers - up from an average of 17 pcm - and had a graphic retweeted by the Lib Dem federal party page on the folly of a tax cut for domestic flights.
Membership wise, we saw an uptick of members throughout COP, and noted a significant proportion of councillors joining us in response to our motions. We surveyed existing members on their perceptions of our priorities, and contacted all lapsed members from the last year to learn from their experiences.
We also began work establishing regional GLD groups as a centralised approach fails to recognise the value of local activism. This process was reinforced by the incredible attendance and response from those at climate marches on the 6th November. If you have a local issue you would like to organise around - be it unconsidered planning, wasteful governance, or industrial negligence - we want the Green Liberal Democrats to provide an adaptable platform founded on strong liberal values.
We drafted a joint Climate Justice motion to be submitted to Spring Conference with a range of AOs, reformed our communications strategy to build a more inclusive community, and got to work on a Membership Welcome Pack that distributes physical materials (and Green Libby's!) to those who support our efforts.
We are pleased to see that one of our GLD executive Tahir Maher is standing for election as Vice President, we wish him and all the other candidates well.
A whole lot more is in the works, but we fear it is too early to discuss less we curse ourselves. For greater detail on many of our projects, be sure to read Francis' Report on his first month here.
We will continue to provide insight into our ventures and objectives, and we want you to get involved also. We have the largest executive of any AO or SAO, but more perspectives will always provide more value. If anything at all within the last month piqued your interest, generated an opinion, or raised a concern, be sure to get in touch.
We hope to speak with you before, but if not, we shall see you at the same time (final day of the month), in the same place (your inbox), next month!
PS - Share this newsletter! Get the word out - Green Liberal Democrats are getting things done!