NfCG Annual General Meeting & Members' Meeting
As an innovation, the Autumn Members' Meeting and the Annual General Meeting of the Federation were held together on Saturday 26th September. This took the place of the usual Annual Conference which will be resumed next September in York.
The AGM
Retiring President Bob Gale, paid tribute to the financial support given by Corporate Associates, giving us a short breathing space to collect ourselves after the loss of the grant from Consumers' Association. It also enabled continued publication of Consumer News with which Roy Bisson and his team have transformed the public face of NfCG. He looked forward to the formation of three, or even four, new Consumer Groups in the coming year.
He and other members of NfCG paid a warm tribute to our honorary Secretary, Stella Walsh and in particular to her efforts in obtaining results with the EU Survey on Food Labelling. Well over a thousand people were persuaded to complete and return the survey forms despite widespread criticism that they were badly drawn up.
New Vice-Presidents
Three new Vice-Presidents were deemed elected and their support is most welcome. They are - Lord Ezra of Horsham, David Hatch CBE and Tom Miller. There is now a formidable triumvirate of supporters in the House of Lords encompassing all political hues. This shows that NfCG, while inviting a politician to address the meeting because his party has something interesting to say, is nevertheless, an apolitical organisation.
Resolution
Dr. Ray Heyworth on behalf of Edinburgh Consumer Group proposed the following resolution:
"The National Federation of Consumer Groups
welcomes the termination of duty
and tax free shopping across European Union Boundaries, due in July 1999."
He pointed out that the change due next July would make no difference to those who bought products in France because they were cheaper. purchasers still paid taxes, only they were French taxes. There was discussion but the resolution was passed with no dissension.
Elections
Esther Rose was deemed elected as Treasurer, and Marie Jennings as Chairman. This bald statement needs embellishing. Esther has handled our finances with a delicate touch through difficult times and is irreplaceable. It is with some relief therefore, that those of us who depend more than others on her skills (even if she somehow omitted to pay my expenses) learned that she has agreed to continue.
That Marie has agreed to take the Chair is a welcome boost to the prestige of NfCG. Her thoughts for the future, as we approach the millennium, are reported elsewhere. She paid tribute to the retiring members of the Executive Committee, Dorothy Craig and Doug Surridge, and re-welcomed Roy Bisson as a member representing Area 5 which encompasses Winchester and Guernsey.
Presentation
Tribute to his hard work had already been made but there remained a happy ceremony when Lady Wilcox presented Bob Gale with a token of everyone's appreciation of his time as Chairman. His wife Brenda, to whom a presentation was also made, would now be able to say with more certainty (perhaps) that she actually knew where he was.
Last words
Our new Chairman's exhortation - "Let's make it all happen!"
John Brown
Dr. Vincent Cable MP
Matters commenced at the Members' Meeting with a talk by Dr. Cable the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Finance, the EMU and the City. What happened to Colin Breed? The Liberal Democrat spokesman on Consumer Affairs was unable, at the last moment, to appear. Dr. Cable apologised and said that he was a poor substitute because his sphere of interest was economic policy, in the widest sense. He need not have worried. Judging by the spate of questions and answers which followed his talk, he was just the right knowledgeable person to address our audience.
Dr. Cable explained the Liberal Democrat economic policy which, briefly, encompassed:
Policy objectives
He discussed policy objectives which included Access to Information - lack of it was a major issue - Redress, Safety, Equity - is distribution fair throughout the country? - and Representation, particularly in decision making. He strongly supported mutual societies and felt that the mutual movement in the UK was much underdeveloped. There had been a hands-off policy towards mergers and growing monopolies. This is outdated and a view must now be taken that is much more critical of large scale monopolies.
Questions and answers
The Questions and Answers session was lively and there were far too many questions to be reported here. One however, concerned leaving matters of competition to the "experts" (i.e. OFT, Monopolies and Mergers Commission, Bank of England)) to decide. It was Peter Mandelson's view, said Dr. Cable, to let the experts decide and keep politics out of it.
He, however, did not agree. Consumer protection without a political element, as was the case with the Regulators, often resulted in weak regimes and we were reaping the results right now. This was a prophetic statement. Only four days later we find the wrath of the Government is being heaped on the Rail Regulators for their weak regimes.
Ken Frere, NfCG Executive Committee Member, thanked Dr. Cable for his most able and interesting talk and made an almost unrepeatable remark, saying that Colin Breed could not have sent a better cable.
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