Published: June 21st 2010 - at 9:10 amLC Blog Nation: discussions & speakers
This has been posted to the Blog Nation page today.
Blog Nation 2010 – ‘WHERE DOES THE LEFT GO FROM HERE?’
| Location | : central London venue |
| Date | : Saturday, 26th June |
| Time | : 10:30am to 4pm |
| Cost | : free, but you have to register: blognation@liberalconspiracy.org |
Programme of Events
10:30am: Registration and tea
11am – 1pm: Coming battles and how we prepare for them
- Is abortion coming back on the agenda? – Kate Smurthwaite (Abortion Rights)
- How do we fight spending cuts? – Clifford Singer (Other TPA)
- Way forward on Climate change – Leo (Climatesock blog)
- Immigration: where now? – Anthony Painter (Demos)
- Violence against Women – Amnesty UK
- Challenges for the left – Rick Muir (ippr)
Format yet to be finalised
1:15pm – 2:30pm: Can the left work better together? And how?
Introduction by James Graham, Social Liberal Forum
Panel: John McDonnell MP, Dr Evan Harris, Rowenna Davis (journalist), Alex Smith (LabourList)
Format: Audience reaction after the introduction, and then back to the panel and the audience again.
2:30pm – 2:45pm: grab your lunch!
2:45pm – 3:55pm: Upcoming projects and future direction
Political email list – Sian Berry
Bloggers cooperative – Political Scrapbook
Mobilising via email – David Babbs / 38 Degrees
What now on electoral reform? – Andy May
2:45pm – 3:55pm: Breakout room debates
Room 1 – London Mayoral elections roundtable: what’s the strategy to win?
With London Assembly members, London Labour team and bloggers / writers
Room 2 – Give your own pitch: Anyone can present an idea or talk about their project for 5 minutes.
3:55pm: Summary
Please note: This agenda is still subject to change
——————————————————-
Aims of the Event
- Bring together bloggers, journalists, campaigners and activists from the broad left.
- Focus on strategy rather than open-ended debate
- Meet people
Books!
Bring books that you’d like to give away; share the knowledge and wealth.
Net access and laptops
There will be access to free wifi but due to insurance reasons, you will not be able to plug in your laptop.
——————————————————-
Thoughts, comments and suggestions welcome.
---------------------------
| Tweet |
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
· Other posts by Sunny Hundal
Story Filed Under: News
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Reader comments
Looking good. I do hope that nice Mr Bienkov is coming for the London Mayoral elections roundtable
Can’t make it, to my chagrin. Ah well. I’m sure the Left will cope.
Well done on organsing all this Sunny.
Please though do look again at the format for the .115pm to 2.30pm session. It’s got ‘I’m the expert and I’ll answer your questions in a slightly patronising way’ written all over it.
Forget the panel at the start. Break into small groups, with the panelists circulating and listening in. The small groups then work up a set of ‘demands for leadership’ of the panelists who are then asked to represent their different areas of expertise and influence (Labour left, academia, journalist, blogosphere) and respond to the ‘demands for leadership’ either by refusing to promise action (and saying why) or saying what they’ll do and how they’ll feedback.
More of a challenge for the panel, but they are influencers and opinion leaders because they can do those things, not just so that they can sit on yet another panel and tell us all what to do. This is no slight on the people set for the panel; it’s a reflection of all the conferences I’ve ever been to.
If you don’t agree to this, I’ll still come and won’t grumble.
Looks good. Will there be a webcam link or youtube vids etc during or after for those of us unable to make it to the big smoke?
Hi Paul,
those are good suggestions, and I don’t want an ‘expert panel’ style of debate. Which is why, once James opens, it will go out to the rest, and then the panel will also respond.
But some of the questions I’m trying to address relate directly to them… especially on where socialists, the soft left and liberals can find common cause. No doubt it is a discussion to involve everyone… but I don’t want it to be an open-ended discussion. So I’ll have specific questions to the panellists on how their political groupings should respond and then take it to everyone else to respond. This will probably be the most ‘top down’ discussion. the others will be much more egalitarian. But it’s probably due to the topic at hand.
I’m experimenting with different formats to see what works best.
So your definition of ‘the left’ amounts to Labour, some LibDems, a few think tanks, more Labour and a token Green, all focused on what happens inside the Westminster bubble.
Good luck, it should be enormous fun.
Kevin @6: I think you might be surprised how many people attending live outside the Westminster bubble. I’ve only ever seen Westminster on the TV, and I’m going.
Kevin, the first (long) session is nothing to do with Labour at all. Most of those people probably aren’t even Labour party members.
The second session is about representing different parts of the left (socialist, soft, liberal) and yes, indeed focused on Westminster.
But neither the first nor the third sessions are entirely westminster focused. They are mostly about activism actually. The sessions that do focus on Westminster don’t involve Labour specifically at all.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
- Liberal Conspiracy
LC Blog Nation: discussions & speakers http://bit.ly/bYqR6b
- Dave Cross
RT @libcon: LC Blog Nation: discussions & speakers http://bit.ly/bYqR6b [very much looking forward to this. who's going?]
- Paul Cotterill
LibCon conference ob Saturday http://bit.ly/bYqR6b Want to take some politics books to give away but not got big enough truck.
- paulstpancras
RT @sunny_hundal: Liberal Conspiracy conference is this Saturday! http://bit.ly/bYqR6b – If you want to come, (it's free) please email or ms
- Nadia
RT @sunny_hundal: Liberal Conspiracy conference this Saturday! http://bit.ly/bYqR6b – If you want to come, (it's free) please email/ msg me.
- Javeriah
@sunny_hundal http://bit.ly/bYqR6b – If you want to come, (it's free) please email or msg me < would like to come
- Liberal Conspiracy
RT @BickerRecord: LibCon conference on Saturday http://bit.ly/bYqR6b Want to take some politics books to give away…
- sunny hundal
Liberal Conspiracy conference is this Saturday! http://bit.ly/bYqR6b – If you want to come, (it's free) please email or msg me.
- Reversing conference power « Though Cowards Flinch
[...] This conference, organised for this weekend by Sunny. Very well done to him. No-one should underestimate the energy that Sunny puts into this stuff, and whatever people think of his politics on occasion, there’s do doubting his commitment to the left cause. [...]
- Chris Coltrane
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
» Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?
» There are alternatives to the reckless ‘Plan A’
» On Beecroft: it is already quite easy to sack people
» Why Cameron’s claim of 600,000 jobs created is plainly wrong
» By using age to allocate NHS funding, Lansley rewards Tory voters
» The rise in domestic violence deaths is not an “isolated” problem
» Adrian Beecroft highlights mindset of Tory right
» The US is now a model for the Eurozone to save itself
» The IMF plan to revive the economy doesn’t go far enough
» The Boris brand is weaker than his friends think
» Nine things you can do to halt Lansley’s destruction of our NHS
|
41 Comments 89 Comments 23 Comments 50 Comments 10 Comments 26 Comments 22 Comments 69 Comments 44 Comments 25 Comments |
 |
LATEST COMMENTS » So Much For Subtlety posted on Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan » Briar posted on Do older people really need more NHS healthcare? » Ben2 posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed' » pagar posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed' » Amanda posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » Chloe posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » Zoroaster posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » Ben2 posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed' » David Irvine posted on By using age to allocate NHS funding, Lansley rewards Tory voters » PaulG posted on Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan » Victoria Lucas posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » John Ferrier posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » Smoking Peaches posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » Caroline Hirons posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » Caroline Hirons posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother |
