Just a quick plug for the Progress Conference on 3 November - details and online booking at: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/Events/
Speakers include David Aaronovitch, Wendy Alexander, Ed Balls, Nick Cohen, Yvette Cooper, Tony Giddens, Peter Kellner, Oona King, Ed Miliband, Estelle Morris, James Purnell, Jim Knight, Jim Fitzpatrick, Liam Byrne, Kitty Ussher, Phil Woolas ... and even some people I have disagreed with on this site in recent days such as Andy Burnham and Polly Toynbee...
Seminar topics include foreign policy post-Iraq, the public services, housing, the security debate, equality and aspiration, business and social justice, Cameron and the Tories, Labour party reform, politics post-spin, the green agenda, and how progressives should engage with political Islam.
There's also a speech by someone described as "Keynote address - Senior Government Minister".
I have a suspicion that mystery keynote address could be one of the speeches where Mr G Brown, PM, sets out the vision that, had Lord Falconer had the patience to wait two weeks and buy a £5 ticket, he could have heard before chatting extremely unhelpfully to the Sunday Times about an alleged absence of.
Nick Cohen's come a long way. A few years ago he wouldn't have been seen dead at a Progress conference, full of New Labour figures.
ReplyDeleteI must say it sounds awful.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I've no objection to seeing Estelle Morris or Ed Miliband. I can even cope with Tony Giddens. But a whole day of it! The mind boggles.
David Aaronovitch, Nick Cohen, Liam Byrne...
ReplyDeleteThe kind of Dream Team I have regular nightmares about.
The difference between this and the Compass Conference is enormous. Though Yvette Cooper would have been good there...and I think Ed Miliband can now actually claim to have done both.
I think I remember Luke writing he had only attended Compass to sing the praises of nuclear weapons.
Really...I've got bored of disliking Aaronovitch and Cohen. Their vile justifications for the destruction of Iraq are so passe...but Liam Byrne...oooh I hate the thought of him having any power...