Conference Blog - Day 2 Sunday

12.16.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 15th Sep 2008

An interesting if long day!

I started the day listening to David Laws, MP speak about education. He presented a compelling and spirited speech calling for major reform, including scrapping of the centralised and overly-prescriptive national curriculum. He has my full support in this, children, especially primary age children, need to learn at their own pace, and forcing tests and levels on them simply doesn't achieve the best results. He also championed the pupil premium and mentioned that moves were afoot to secure up to £2.5bn more funding (a total of £5bn) for this idea. Investing in getting the poorest children to succeed seems a real goal that can help deliver a fairer society to me.

I then listened to the debate on Private Finance Initiatives. Hatfield got a mention, as did Nigel Quinton, when our County Group Leader Chris White took to the stage. Hatfield Hospital was held up as a failure of this policy, where financial rules mean PFIs can't deliver and we bear the cost of poor policy from the current government. We think we can do better, and with your help, maybe one day we can prove it!

Next was a debate about social mobility. The overlap with education was clear. What was also clear were the undeniable statistics that under New Labour, the gap between rich and poor has widened. Our policies are clearly designed to close this gap, however some new aspects were presented that mean we must continue to call for policy changes across the board and must look even harder for ways to ensure everyone gets a range of opportunities in life and are not condemned before they're out of primary school to failure and underachievement.

After a quick lunch and some family commitments, I rushed back to the hall in time to hear the paper on the centenary of the state pension. It's amazing to think that today a state pension is worth less as a percentage of average earnings than it was in 1950. Given the chance we would dearly love to change this and reward, not penalise, pensioners.

Nick Clegg then took the stage for a Q&A session. He answered questions on tax, on his relationship with the press and on other topics, and came across as truly and fully committed to all the ideals and values we all hold. He's a really motivational speaker, and if you haven't heard him speak, you really should make the effort, it's well worth it.

Leaving early, I joined a queue to hold a shopping basket. I don't usually like to queue for this sort of thing, but when it's next to Vince Cable, holding his own shopping basket, it's worth the wait. As soon as the photos get to me I'll put them on the site.

Having had my photo taken I then popped into the exhibition to visit some people and found that Vince Cable was giving a briefing for Parliamentary Candidates. I popped over and got the low-down on where the money would be coming from to implement some of our policies should we have the opportunity to implement them. I won't steal his thunder, his speech is tomorrow! It's clear the money can be found and that there may well be money left over for tax cuts targeted at the lowest earners, which is great. After the session on social mobility, it's clear that the poorest in our society need every penny they earn if we are to give their children every opportunity to succeed.

Off then to the Housing meeting. A strange session in some ways, it started out as a discussion panel review of where housing and urban design had gone wrong and what needed fixing, but ended up as a review of planning policy and some serious problems with how our current system works. One interesting contact, however, is Ruth Reed, the newly elected president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, who was very interested in the Old Hatfield Charrette and may well send someone along to observe on behalf of the Institute.

After some canapes and wine, the last session of the day was in the Climate Clinic. Most of the audience seemed to be lobbyists rather than members, and the topic was a 'New Green Deal' paper that suggested we need to move to almost a war footing to address Climate Change. As you know, my research area is concerned with an aspect of climate change, and I consider myself very well informed on the topic. I KNOW climate change is a real and present danger to us all, but this paper went further than I'd be willing to go to address the issue, and, I believe, further than is necessary for us as a society to go to address it. There seemed an almost evangelical fervour coming from some individuals in the room. Steve Webb MP came to speak, and made some interesting points and illustrated why our current governance seems so lack-lustre in dealing with climate change, namely the relative clout of the Environment Agency in comparison with some other government departments. We need structural change in governance and appropriate policies to effect change in people's behaviour to combat this threat, but the paper presented was not, I think, the right way to achieve it. Our current policies are a great starting point which we need to build upon, but we also need to learn to walk before we can run. Jumping straight to a gallop will simply mean we fall over.

Finally, a visit to the bar for a beer after a long day. And who should I bump into? Mike Hobday, the Labour PPC for Welwyn Hatfield! No, he's not been converted, he was attending as a lobbyist on behalf of MacMillan Cancer Care. And apparently he's been reading my blog! So hello Mike!

It's now after midnight, and I suspect tomorrow (today!) will be a long day, so I'll wish you goodnight and head to my bed!