At the Party Conferences

Sam Dowling, our Policy Manager sums up the political party conferences this year, sharing her keen political insight and a bit of conference goss!

Each year MPs, Councillors, political activists, journalists, lobbyists, charity workers and others flock to attend the three main party political conferences. Something of an acquired taste, these three weeks of intrigue, gossip, insight and self indulgent rambles in airless auditoriums and sauna-like marquees can provide a helpful insight into backroom politics and act as a useful guide to who’s on their way up and who’s on their way out. 

Strictly for Fun

One year into the coalition government, there was a new sense of business and professionalism among the many young attendees – evidenced by the low beard and high suit counts. The Liberal Democrats were disappointingly quiet on how they would innovatively solve public policy problems, despite party leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg MP’s avowed commitment. When one of the conference high points is the Schools Ministers’ strictly come dancing gag, you know you’re struggling. 

Social enterprise was absent from the Leader’s keynote speech to his conference, which focused instead on jobs, growth and doing more to get the banks lending. The conference debate on volunteering on Saturday morning (before most attendees had arrived) was uninspiring.

We looked to the fringe meetings for a steer on what the Liberal Democrats think about the role social enterprises and charities could play in the brave new world of localism and smaller government. Our own fringe was well attended, and you can read more about it here. 

Social enterprises did get air time in the health and trade union fringe events. Social Care Minister, Paul Burstow, did his best – talking about the need for more attention to be paid to social care, the "Cinderella" of the health system but vocal critics such as Lord Oakeshott, remained unconvinced,  branding the Open Public Services white paper and its recommendations as an "intellectual dog's breakfast" trying to "squash" many worthy objectives into a single intellectual framework. . 

On the whole, it could have been a more positive conference for social investment and social enterprise but there is a long way to go before social enterprise is accepted as a legitimate solution to some of the bigger problems around public service.  

Relax...ed

There was a distinct lack of energy at this year’s Labour Party conference, despite Leader Ed Miliband’s assurance that his brother David has “moved on” from their “bruising” leadership battle of a year ago and that the party was re-invigorated and ready to take the fight to the Government. 

Whilst internal party divisions were less pronounced than expected between the Blairite right and the MiliE left, there was vocal unhappiness from the membership about tuition fees and, surprisingly, policy positions running into the next general election. 

With a fairly uninspiring speech that tried to distinguish between good and bad businesses and to strike a “bargain” between the party and the general public, it was left to the fringe events to provoke discussion and debate around points of agreement and divergence both within and without Labour’s ranks. 

ACEVO and NCVO held a lively debate with the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, Dame Claire Tickell of Action for Children and NCVO Chair Martyn Lewis, looking at the role of charities in public service delivery, and concerns that this compromised the sector’s independence and ability to challenge Government. The point was also made that modern charities devote huge resource to advertising and campaigning and not enough to delivering services for their beneficiaries.  

Our own Labour event was well attended with some feisty questions from the audience, who quizzed the panel on how we can increase citizen engagement and improve people’s view of the political process. You can see our coverage of the lively debate on our Storify page here. 

I. Am. Not. Making. This. Up.

And so to the Conservative Conference in Manchester, coinciding with the launch of both our new research into social investment and the finance community, and the launch of our new £20m+ programme - the Social Action Fund.   

Resolutely focused on driving the reform programme and reinforcing arguments about the need for public spending cuts, the Cabinet and Ministerial team were largely on message, with the exception of the cat spat sparked by the Rt Hon Teresa’s May MP’s tale (which she most certainly Did. Not. Make. Up.) of a failed asylum seeker who was unable to removed from the country because he owned a cat. Cue a brief hissing match (encouraged by the media) between the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary the Rt Hon Ken Clarke MP. 

A high point in an otherwise fairly uninspiring conference, other key platform moments included the Mayor of London, Chancellor Osborne’s announcement of credit easing,  ballet dancers, hooded teenagers talking about social action, the Apprentice’s Tim Cambell on the need to support business, and “Restoration Man” George Clarke criticising the previous Government’s planning and health and safety record. 

Once again, we turned to the fringe for a better sense of what the party truly cared about.  At their annual small business fringe, BIS Minister Mark Prisk MP told the FSB that there was a critical need for support for small businesses and that the Chancellor’s announcement about credit easing was fantastic news.  He went on to say that the real need was for capacity building and flexibility to allow innovation and growth.  We don’t disagree!  

Finishing off the week, the Prime Minister made his closing remarks and our response to his speech can be seen here.  

Sing a Rainbow…

All in all, the mood during this year’s political conference season was muted. Liberal Democrat MPs attended Conservative conference in Manchester, Conservatives MPs attended Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, the Labour Party came to terms with its place in the new world order, and everyone took their starting places for next year’s elections (local and London).

November next year is the halfway point for the coalition, after which we can expect things to start getting interesting.  Expect lots of reports of “unavoidable spending cuts”, more talk about payment by results and the need for innovative finance to maintain services, and more news on reforms to maintain services, and more news on reforms to education, health, and transport.

Finally, can I say thanks to the organisations with whom we have worked this year, and throughout the last few years, for attending our events, speaking at them, and generally raising the quality of the discussions held.  Much appreciated.