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The eagled eyed amongst you will have noticed that the newsletter has come slightly earlier this week and for very good reasons. No one is in the office on Friday. Well, poor Rachel has been left alone to ‘man the fort’, but the rest of us are all off for our Christmas jolly! Hurray! Only this particular jolly comes in the form of the LLG Governance Conference, and rather than a frivolous occasion, it is in fact a highbrow exploration of the thorny local government issues facing the sector. The extraordinary programme of speakers and chance to network with fellow colleagues and our corporate partners is the absolute highlight of the year- and we are all excited.
We are particularly interested to hear from Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester who was first elected in 2017. It is easy to forget his role in central government over the years, having twice stood in a leadership campaign, the first of which he lost to Ed Milliband (coming fourth) and the second to Jeremy Corben (coming second). He vocalises a strong commitment to environmental issues in Manchester, recently unveiling his 5-year environmental plan to be carbon neutral by 2038 and aims to bring Manchester’s bus network back into public ownership by 2025, having won a High Court challenge by operators Stagecoach Group and Rotala back in 2022. He has previously spoken out about funding for the North, so the recent announcements on funding allocation might well feature in what he has to say.
Perhaps the most anticipated speaker we have at the conference is the Rt Hon Baroness Warsi, who recently resigned from the Conservative party after accusing it of ‘hypocrisy and double standards’. A former solicitor, she made history by becoming the first Muslim woman in the cabinet as co-chair of the Conservative Party in 2010. Baroness Warsi has been particularly vocal about the previous governments response to Islamophobia and has published a book entitled “Muslims don’t Matter” to highlight the prejudice she says is “rooted in racism”; and there is data to back this up. According to a 2022 survey by the University of Birmingham, Muslims are the UK’s second ‘least liked’ group, after Gypsy and Irish Travellers. Notably it found, ‘people from middle and upper-class occupational groups are more likely to hold prejudiced views of Islam than people from working class occupational groups’.
All in all, the conference looks set to be a tremendous event, and we thank Trowers and Hamlins for the use of their stunning offices in London. We will be publishing a round up early next week for those who missed it but do follow us on our social media accounts for all the breaking news.
This is our last bulletin of the year from Dennis, and our podcast and vlogs will resume next year unless the government publish their white paper on English devolution. In that case, we will squeeze in some coverage for you in a focused podcast next week.
Best wishes
The LLG Team
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