autumn conference directory liverpool 18th – 22nd september 2010 delivering for Britain THE HEALTH HOTEL Supported by Health and care debated under one roof The Health Zone – free health testing and advice Supported by Saturday 18 to Wednesday 22 September, ACC Monday 20 September Preventing another Mid-Staffs: debating the essential steps to secure patient safety in the NHS Lord Clement-Jones 12:45–14:00, Hall 11B, ACC Research to the rescue! Baroness Northover 12:45–14:00, Hall 1C, ACC A caring Big Society? Paul Burstow MP 12:45–14:00, Hall 11C, ACC Hearing the Unheard Voice: are health services failing the most vulnerable? Lord Clement-Jones 18:15–19:30, Hall 11B, ACC Better outcomes for patients: NHS Dragons in the Den John Pugh MP 18:15–19:30, Hall 1C, ACC Getting in early: transforming care through early diagnosis and intervention John Pugh MP 18:15–19:30, Hall 11C, ACC The Health Debate THE HEALTH HOTEL THE HEALTH HOTEL Reception John Pugh MP, Chair: Sam Lister, The Times with an address by Paul Burstow MP (invitation only) 20:00–21:15 Suites 3, 4, 5 combined, Jury’s Inn Hotel 21:30–23:00, Suites 3, 4, 5 combined, Jury’s Inn Hotel Tuesday 21 September Trust and Openness in the NHS: From Paternalism to Partnership John Pugh MP 12:45–14:00, Hall 11C, ACC Solving the Public Health Crisis Paul Burstow MP 12:45–14:00, Hall 1C, ACC Smarter spending for better care Paul Burstow MP 12:45–14:00, Hall 11B, ACC New politics, new healthcare: Can the web help patients and clinicians transform the NHS? John Pugh MP 18:15–19:30, Hall 11C, ACC Innovation as cure: how medical research can crack our toughest health problems Baroness Northover 18:15–19:30, Hall 11B, ACC What’s next for cancer survivors? Aftercare that works for all Paul Burstow MP 18:15–19:30, Hall 1C, ACC The Health Hotel non-fringe members: For more information, see attached programme or visit: www.healthhotel.org.uk Media partner If you require this in Braille, large print or audio, please contact 020 7462 5545 introduction contents features Welcome to the Conference Directory for Features: 3–6 the Liberal Democrat autumn 2010 federal Facing the Future by Ros Scott 3 conference. Liberals and Liverpool by Chris Davies MEP 4 This Conference Directory is your guide to the many Local elections 2011 by Tim Pickstone 6 sessions and events taking place outside of the main auditorium at conference. The Directory is designed Information: 7–16 to help you make the most of conference, from fringe, information Conference information 7 to exhibition, to key conference events – so please read it in conjunction with the Conference Agenda Conference venue plans 13 for all of your conference needs. It contains Access and facilities for disabled people 14 everything you need to know to help you get the most out of your time here in Liverpool. Transport and travel 16 exhibition The Directory also includes important information on Exhibition 18–26 security. This is significantly different from previous Plan of exhibition 18 years. See security on page 11. Conference sponsors 26 We have a packed fringe programme this year with a record number of events. A map and venue plan is Fringe guide: 27–80 enclosed to help you navigate your way around Saturday fringe 28 Liverpool and the ACC. Also included is the fringe Sunday fringe 31 guide and conference diary pullout, please use them to plan the fringe meetings you wish to attend and Monday fringe 45 the debates in which you would like to participate Tuesday fringe 65 fringe fringe whilst at conference. With such a number and variety Wednesday fringe 79 there will be more than enough to keep you busy! As well as convenient information regarding transport, List of advertisers 78 cashpoints and utilities, the Directory shows you Conference diary pullout 39–42 where to go for food and drink when you need to refuel. Conference timetable 2011 39 fringe Should you have any questions whilst at conference Map of Liverpool city centre back cover please ask one of our stewards who will be happy to help. Alternatively, the Information Desk, situated in the Lower Galleria on the lower ground floor of the For the conference agenda, further feature ACC, is available to assist you with procedural and articles, auditorium information and standing general information requests. orders, see the separate Conference Agenda. Keep this guide handy and all you need to do is enjoy yourself. But if all else fails, ask! Enjoy conference. For conference details and registration online: The Conference Team www.libdems.org.uk/conference fringe fringe ISBN 978-1-907046-22-3 Published by The Conference Office, Liberal Democrats, 4 Cowley Street, London SW1P 3NB. Design and layout by Mike Cooper, [email protected]. wednesday tuesday monday sunday saturday Printed by Sarum Colourview, 23–24 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8ND. www.sarumcolourview.co.uk Front cover photo by Alex Folkes delivering for Britain 1 diary LOST:ONE CHILDHOOD. Shumon, just 13, works 7 hours a day in a factory. Registered Charity1072612 No. ©UNICEF UK/Bangladesh/2009/Sue Parkhill Every day, children are denied their education, protection from abuse, health care and clean water. Help us put it right with a Robin Hood Tax on banks. www.unicef.org.uk/robinhood facing the future by Ros Scott features Politics is, of course, an positioning and the dialogue of uncertain business. distrust and rejection. But to paraphrase Donald The Coalition Government provides us Rumsfeld, there are certain with a welcome opportunity to show how things can be different – that uncertainties, and the coalitions can be a new form of formation of the Westminster politics which is both effective and Coalition Government has useful. In that, Westminster is taken us into the realm of following the lead shown in Scotland uncertain uncertainties. and Wales and in many councils up and down the land. Our new situation requires clear and firm leadership from the top of the The best advocates for this change Party, but our history tells us that we are our members and activists who work best and are most successful see it as part of their role to explain Baroness Ros Scott of when we all work together for a what it is we are seeking to achieve, Needham Market is common goal. to represent the Party and defend it President of the Liberal where necessary. Democrats This will require enormous efforts from all parts of the Party and the period This brings us to consideration of how since the announcement of the we recruit, support and inform our Coalition has been spent in a frenzy of members. And beyond that how we activity in Parliament, Cowley Street link the views of members and and in the Federal Committees. But activists back into the Parliamentary this is only the start. Party at Westminster. As a way of kicking off a process The consultative session will be about which will involve members at this the Party as a whole – in every early stage, the Federal Executive has community, the Devolved Assemblies agreed to hold a consultative session and in Europe as well as in in Liverpool, where conference Westminster. It’s about how we create representatives both individually and a Liberal movement which articulates as members of groups and our beliefs and values across the associations can discuss the country. challenges we face, the opportunities which being in Government brings to us and how we move forward. The Coalition Government provides Our Party’s success in the future will, us with a welcome opportunity to like its success in the past, be built on show how things can be different the commitment and hard work of its members and activists. – that coalitions can be a new form of politics which is both effective and There is no doubt that this country has had an entrenched political useful. system based on adversarial delivering for Britain 3 features liberals and liverpool by Chris Davies MEP As a student in the mid-1970s of achievement that is only sometimes the very word ‘Liverpool’ rivalled by my work today in the excited me. European Parliament. Here was a great city, albeit I am proud of that time, but I also remember it as one when Thatcherite one with equally great deflationery policy cost Merseyside problems – and at a time when 60,000 jobs. Labour’s ‘Militant our influence elsewhere hardly Tendency’ were the beneficiaries of existed, it was being run by the anger and despair that generated, Liberals! and their actions fouled the city’s reputation for years. The party of Trevor Jones and Cyril Carr, David Alton and Mike Storey, I took the political lessons I had learnt made the breakthrough in 1973 and and applied them elsewhere, but we have led Liverpool City Council, on others stayed and have since changed Chris Davies is MEP for and off, for half of the years since then. Liverpool hugely for the good. Liberal the North West Democrats at our conference will see Politics here can be rough and raw; the dramatic improvements made to running Liverpool isn’t easy. Our the city centre. Public services are conference centre is located in the vastly better, the parks and riverside ward I represented from 1980 to environment are a treat, exam results 1984. For decades it had been the are above average, and the crime rate safest Labour seat in England, with is low.