Brighton rock!

Spent a few days at the Labour Party conference in Brighton and found the fringe a useful opportunity to get close to and interact with key Ministers.

Local Government Minister John Denham gave a barnstorming speech at the Compass fringe where he rounded on critics and showed a passionate and fiery side to him that I hadn't witnessed before. I got a quick word with him the following evening where he modedestly laughed off his performance.

Housing Minister John Healey was another who was blanket booked on the fringe programme and he also made platform annnouncements about the second tranche of bidding for council housing new build and linkages on apprenticeships to Government housing new build investment whatever the sector. I managed to speak to John on two or three occasions and he was vociverous on the reform of housing finance. He is a man on a mission and has made execllent progress in his 4 or 5 months in the job, I really hope he has the opportunity to make further advances prior to the general election.

I also had passing chats with Rosie Winterton once or twice and I am sure her ears will still be ringing from myself and colleagues asking her questions on equal pay and protecting frontline services from cuts, on the fringe. The last time was at the CLES / LOCALIS fringe where the excellent Neil McInroy spoke about creating resillent local economies.

Also did fringes on Housing, planning, international aid, public sector reform, the economy and climate change. Some of the notable speakers at these included Douglas Alexander, Ed Milliband, Michael Bichard and Steve Bundred.

Fringe benefits!

Busy few days at the Labour Party Conference opened with a fringe meeting on commissioning on the Sunday night. CLG Minister Parmjit Dhanda MP opened our joint fringe with the LGIU followed by there Chief Executive Andy Sawford, myself and finally John Tizzard. We have a healthy debate and agree that we cannot allow the agenda on commissioning to recreate false barriers like client / contractor splits and shift towards local government becoming an enabler without also fulfilling its crucial role as a provider.

We hold other fringes on the economic footprint of local government (with CLES), insourcing, social housing and joint waste authorities (with Enterprise). They all go fairly well despite the intense competition on the fringe programme.

I am also asked to respond to Local Government Minister John Healey MP at a Fabian breakfast fringe on the future of public services and colleague Mo Baines speaks on a UNISON platform with Communities Minister Hazel Blears MP.

Prime Ministers wife Sarah Brown visits our stand along with a host of Government Ministers. All in all a useful few days which allowed APSE to promote its policies and research to the highest levels of Government.

Spreading the word

We attend the Labour Party Conference at Bournemouth where we are exhibiting and also manage to get on a few fringe events over the course of a few days.

It starts on the Sunday where I am speaking at the Compass/UNISON/Tribune fringe on 'Can public services deliver the new progressive consensus'. No pressure, the other speakers are Ministers Douglas Alexander, Ed Milliband and Angela Eagle, along with Heather Wakefield and Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee. I am on second and go for it anyway and suggest that the answer to the question is affirmative so long as we forget the fixation with competition, markets and choice and concentrate on competitiveness and public value. Most of the other speakers concur with my line, although Ed has a cheeky dig at public servants by suggesting that they are unresponsive and inflexible, I put him right on this during the questions and the audience seem to like this. However, Douglas decides to stick up for his mate and has a go back. On reflection not bad for a nights work I have managed to offend not only the person responsible for general election strategy but also the one who is writing the current party of governments new manifesto.

The next evening I speak at a housing fringe with some of the main trade union delegates and its good to catch up with whats going on in an area where we have a long standing campaign running.

We have some brilliant coverage at the stand with Ruth Kelly, Hazel Blears, Parmjit Dhanda, John Healy and Ian Pearson visiting. Unfortunately I miss the main event when Gordon Brown himself visits the stand and I am still outside the venue, Mo and Amanda are present and spend some time chatting with him. I think they are overstating things a bit, however I get a surprise later on. I go to a private meeting on climate change with Environment Minister Hilary Benn organised by the Fabians and I am really pleased when he compliments a few points I have made in the meeting. When leaving the meeting I think to myself I have done pretty well but notice I have 16 missed calls on my phone. I check my messages and it turns out Mo and Amanda have been all over the BBC 6 'o' clock news and Channel 4, 7 'o' clock news with Gordon Brown standing talking to them at our stand. We all meet up for dinner and my Hilary Benn story is obviously lost in the excitement of the others being on the national news programmes.

All in all its been a really good week with some excellent exposure for APSE and we come away thinking job well done.