So,
Phillip Blond did end up coming back from the United States after all (if you missed the trip or just want to read more about it try
here or on the ever excellent
Frum Forum, or perhaps even on
Arianna Huffington's blog.
He came back just in time for the launch of his new book ‘Red Tory'. If you missed the launch you can view pictures and related media coverage on our event page
here.
Following on from the launch Newsnight reporter Paul Mason presented a two part report of ‘Broken Britain' on Monday and Tuesday nights this week, which features Phillip and draws significantly on the Red Tory thesis, which you can watch on this site,
and which the Pits n Pots blog has written about
here.
In Cameron's Big Society speech on Wednesday we were delighted to see much that correlates with the ResPublica ethos; the blogs noticed it too. Not least, the ever watchful
New Statesman.
Meanwhile
Asheem Singh went to the Acevo Third Sector Summit and spoke later with Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise London about
new horizons for social enterprise. Right before 'going thermonuclear' as several Tweeters put it, with
this post, 'Rank Idiocy', one fulminous chapter of the fast and furious internet campaign involving key thinkers on right and left to help social enterprise MyPolice resist being challenged by an ever expansive HMIC. There was a huge burst on Twitter, with literally hundreds of posters lending their support. Best of all, the campaign was successful, and HMIC and MyPolice are now working together. A happy - and eminently reasonable - outcome for all.
For a four day week, we were certainly kept on our feet. Hopefully the long weekend will give us time to recover ahead of a running start into the election...