fried breakfast #1, and debate on public services policy

Equally quintessential to cheap conference wine and canapes is the process of rolling out of bed 5 minutes before they stop serving breakfast at the hotel. So after the first of what I'm sure will be many, many fried breakfasts on the conference trail, it was over to the Marroitt for the first panel of the day... on Public Services.

Excuse me, what time do they stop serving breakfast?

Our panel today agreed that future of public services will be based around decentralisation of funding and decision making.

Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb commended ippr's work on public services, very nice of him, and went on to discuss the benefits of devolving power to local communities and service users.

Julian Astle from the Centre Forum thinktank agreed that the Liberal Democrats are in the right place with this policy, but notes that they are lagging on the issue of further devolution from the local communities to the individual.

Astle said that policy based on diversity, provision, and choice is putting the Liberal Democrats in the the right place, but the Conservatives are also using this sort of language. According to Astle, it's essential for the Lib Dems to bring fairness to the forefront of this debate in order to differentiate their policy.

House white and impending doom

Conference season never really begins until that first drop of house white hits the senses, so it's on that note that we grab the nearest glass and unwind to the theme of impending doom that usually surrounds climate change debate. And remember folks, regardless of what year we're in, impending doom is just around the corner.

Three months out from the next round of international climate change negotiations in Poland, and looking forward to late next year when a new international deal on climate change will be signed in Copenhagen, our expert panel discussed his issues at hand and mused on what the UK should be bringing to the table.

Climate change talks are always heavy on the statistics, but Christian Aid's Eliot Whittington manages to cut through the numeracy as he opens the event. Christian Aid is observing real life climate problems on a local level in many developing nations: things like salinity of water and disappearing coastlines.

Eliot also describes the lack of drive for low carbon economies among the countries that have the biggest footprints. So not only should the UK, Europe and the US be reducing their own carbon emissions, but they should also be supporting reductions in the carbon emitting giants, India and China.

Then it's over to WWF's Kit Vaughan, whose apocalyptic predictions include the being able to sail over the arctic by 2020. If this is the 'science' of the issue, no wonder the UK is in 'individual and national denial' of the problem.

Blending science with analogy is no new trick in environmental discourse (Brazilian rainforest and football fields anyone?), but the reality is that the political and social rhetoric simply is not matching the scientific evidence. ippr's warm words report tackles the issue of climate change rhetoric, and is a must read for those seeking to change public behaviour on climate change.

Kit Vaughan rightly states that society is waiting for bold leadership on climate change from the Government, and that time is running out (impending doom still very much around the corner).

Liberal Democrat environment shadow Steve Webb spoke of running the green thread through all areas of policy, and bringing transport, environment, energy policy together government. On the issue of engagement, he points out that 'enlightened self-interest' (ie scare tactics) don't work, so the government must work towards changing the norms in society to reflect the behaviour change needed to combat climate change. Again, it's the call out for 'bold leadership'.

Thanks to all our speakers for our first day of conferences. Now it's time for the dying minutes of Match of the Day, and in honour of tonight's debate I'll be watching it with the lights out.

So... which one of you guys HASN'T calculated their carbon footprint?

meet your host

Lembit Opik on a segway

One event down, 36 to go. Day 1 of our conference programme was kicked off with a standing-room-only event on the future of progressive politics, led by journalist Martin Kettle, with contributions from Danny Alexander MP, Lord Tom McNally, Jasper Garard, and Bobby Duffy from Mori.

ippr: standing room only since 1988

Bobby Duffy said that Nick Clegg has the right message, but the real challenge is communicating that message to the public.

The topic of decentralisation of government and elected mayors was briefly touched on; ippr has recently advocated elected mayors in the UK as a means of empowering local communities. You can read about our work in this area on the ippr website.

Then we saw Lembit Opik on a segway.

Not pictured: Segway.

Lastly, the ippr team are owed a round of drinks from our esteemed colleague Luke Hildyard, who 'overslept' and missed the 8am train from Waterloo.

Less than two weeks to go

2008 Conference season is almost upon us, and ippr's fringe events schedule continues to grow.

The programmes have been updated with the latest speakers, incuding:

Bob Neill MP, Shadow Local Government Minister for Regeneration
Tony McNulty MP, Home Office Minister of State for Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing
Catherine Rawsthorne, UK Youth Parliament
Al Aynsley-Green, England’s first Children’s Commissioner, and his deputy Rob Williams
Eliot Whittington, Climate Change Policy Advisor, Christian Aid

New events include "In conversation with... Oliver Letwin, Chairman of the Conservative Policy Review/Research Department", where he will be interviewed by Journalist David Aaronovitch.

Many prominent authors and commentators are joining the ippr programme this year, including Jonathan Guthrie, Polly Toynbee, Martin Kettle, Jasper Gerard, and Jenni Russell.

Watch this space for daily updates during conference season 2008!

Latest speaker updates

More speakers have been confirmed for our ever-growing conference events schedule. Full programmes can be found down the right of this page.

New confirmations include:

Julian Astle, Centre Forum
Anna Coote, Healthcare Commission
Jim Knight MP
Bob Sussman, Centre for American Progress
Nick Hurd MP
Stephen Dorrell MP
Bob Neill MP

More speakers announced

More speakers have been confirmed for ippr's conference fringe events programme. The latest schedules can be found on the links to your right.

New speakers include:

Ed Balls, Secretary of State, DCFS
Jasper Gerard, Journalist
Jenni Russell, Journalist
Richard Reeves, Director of Demos think tank
Lawrence McGinty, ITN Science Editor
Adam Afriyie MP, Shadow Minister for Innovation, University and Skills
David Aaronovitch, Journalist
Reiji Kemppinen, Head of the European Commission in the UK
Tom Watson MP
Dominic Morris, OfCom
Gaby Hinsliff, Journalist
Stephen Timms MP
Sue Palmer, Author


Watch this space - there will be more announcements soon.

You can sign up to receive regular updates for ippr events at the ippr website.

For more conference information, email events@ippr.org.