Public services agenda: agreeing to agree.

The themes of personalism and localism have run through all of ippr's public services debates at party conferences, and today's event is no different. All parties have emphasised the importance of personalisation and empowering local communities, but as Labour MP Tony McNulty pointed out last week, there are still massive challenges ahead for public service delivery.

When differentiating the Conservatives' public service policy from the other parties, former Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell MP acknowledged that there is currently a consensus in policy but questioned the depth of Labour's commitment to the policies of pluralism and localism.

Dorrell also spoke of the 'hard edge' of localism, being that we will have to be comfortable with the fact that localism means 'local variety'. In other words, the edge will be a lot harder for some than for others.

Both Susan Anderson of CBI and Sarah McKee of A4e stressed that public expectations are ultra high for service delivery, and that public opinion is low. The pace of reform can not keep up with rising expectations.

Stephen Dorrell points out the size of ippr's hotel rooms.

Next door the ippr panel debated how to achieve a global deal on climate change:

Nick Hurd MP, also in on the joke. Eliot Whittington, clearly concerned.