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Liberal Democrat Conference round-up

Successful ResPublica fringe in Brighton

ResPublica hosted a successful fringe programme at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton. Our first event, a panel discussion co-hosted with CentreForum and the Fabian Society, which posed question: ‘Can parties reconnect people with politics?’ Andrew Stunnell MP championed the localism agenda in performing exactly this, drawing on the Liberal Democrat principle of championing empowering communities, rather than servicing them. ResPublica’s Caroline Julian argued that representational politics must be complemented by a deeper and more participatory form of democracy by harnessing intermediary institutions, embedded within communities, such as local civic groups and housing associations. Click here for a round-up of Caroline’s reflections.

Later in the week, we hosted an event on ‘Choice in social care: Making care personal’, in association with the Carers Trust and Advance UK. The new Minister for Care and Support services, Norman Lamb MP, shared his views alongside David Boyle, who is leading the Cabinet Office’s choice review, generating much discussion surrounding the Government’s use of the word ‘choice’, and what this means for the social care market. The discussion provided an insight into a forthcoming project, Micro, Mutual and Personal: Relational responses for a new care and support system, which will explore the entrepreneurial and innovative opportunities open to personal budgets holder, their families and to front line social care workers. The panel was chaired by Alex Fox, a Research Associate, and Chief Executive of Shared Lives Plus, who has written for ResPublica’s fringe magazine on micro-scale and mutual solutions in social care here.

Our next event, ‘Employee ownership: Driving co-operation, achieving long-term sustainability’, raised some excellent questions for Jo Swinson MP, the new Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs, who championed the Government’s employee ownership agenda, and argued for a more integrated approach across government departments and policy initiatives, including the Government’s industrial strategy, local growth, apprenticeships and innovation. The discussion, co-hosted with IPA Involve, formed part of ResPublica’s highly successful co-operatives and mutuals seminar series, hosted to coincide with the UN 2012 Year of Co-operatives.

And to round off our fringe programme, Steve Webb MP, the Minister for Pensions, Stephen Lloyd MP and Andrew George MP, joined Caroline Walton from the CFA and Peter Tutton, Head of Policy, Consumer Credit Counselling Service, to discuss the pressures faced by working households and how borrowing behaviour has changed to reflect tough times. During the discussion on ‘Beyond the banks: Changing borrowing habits in Britain’s squeezed households’, Steve Webb argued for the potential of new savings platforms through the online savings account harnessed for Universal Credit, and Caroline Walton urged a more holistic approach to borrowing and finance.

As part of ResPublica's party conference programme, we have published The ResPublica Fringe Magazine 2012, with articles and essays from our party conference partners and speakers. The publication is available here, and articles are also published on our very own Disraeli Room blog. We also use social media to broadcast our events via the twitter hashtag #RPfringe. To keep updated follow @res_publica, and the ResPublica team @phillip_blond @carolinemacf @carolineLjulian.

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Date Published
28 September 2012