Compass Conference 2010 Part I

Went to the Compass Conference today and enjoyed it. Where else can you walk into the toilets to come face to face with Andy Burnham, then turn the corner to see a sheepish looking Ed Miliband?

Here goes with a review of the day as it occurs to me after enduring England's performance against USA. The one thing that I will remember about watching the match was my father's cry of 'GREEN' after their goal went in.

The Conference kicked off with four keynotes addresses. I think two would probably do. Caroline Lucas, the Green Leader and MP kicked off. Some Labour members tend to be rather critical that Compass invite such non-Labour figures to their events. My verdict is that she speaks very well and got a very good reception. I couldn't help thinking that as a candidate in a Labour leadership election she would probably not do that badly. Nick Dearden, from the Jubilee Debt Campaign then spoke and also went down well with his criticism of the treatment of the debts of LEDCs. Next up was Christine Blower of the NUT. Her style was not as fluent as the earlier two, but she does veer between making very good, apt and popular points and a partially faltering delivery. NUT Deputy General Secretary, Kevin Courtney, was warmly applauding her efforts at the end and Blower's speech again went down well. Neal Lawson's address was not the highpoint of the day. For me, he doesn't quite hit the mark. His repeated tree metaphor became very tedious.

Next I attended a seminar run by CND entitled 'After New Labour's Interventionism: towards a progressive foreign policy'. The session included contributions by Seamus Milne of The Guardian and Eric Joyce MP. The session was thought provoking and worth attending. Essentially, there was considerable agreement that Labour's foreign policy going forward needed to be rather different to that of the last thirteen years.

After lunch, I was struggling to decide which seminar to attend. Eventually I plumped for one run by the New Statesman entitled 'Will the new coalition ConDem Labour to another 18 years in opposition, or will it breakdown in 18 months?'. The two speakers were Mehdi Hassan and John Harris, both of whom were excellent and a lively debate ensued. This session was a definite highpoint of the day with numerous interesting contributions from delegates.

Part II to follow.....