Spoke at an international policy conference on ‘urban crisis’, organised by De Montfort University at Leicester City Football Club this evening.
Only a group of academics would want to have a talk on public policy challenges for their after dinner entertainment. Despite my trepidation at delivering a presentation at 8.30pm, they appeared to lap it up and it ended up quite a lively debate.
It was great to see a real fighting spirit amongst APSE’s membership at the annual conference at St Georges Hall in Liverpool. A number of national organisations and their representatives appear to have recently become drained of spirit about local government’s future role, almost accepting that by 2020 local government will play a minimalistic part in society and the lives of local communities. That's not a view APSE shares and it was a chance to promote our 'Ensuring Council' model.