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On Monday this week, at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, the sky was a deep blue, which is highly unusual for the Midlands in October. But if the Conservative right wing took this as a sign from the heavens, they were sadly mistaken. Inside the heavily-fortified conference hall, Tory blue was almost non-existent, right down to the logo. This was a coalition conference, and each minister's speech, for the first time at a Conservative conference, was aimed not only at their delegates but at another party nowhere to be seen in the hall, namely, the Liberal Democrats. Indeed, health secretary, Andrew Lansley, in his speech, even gave credit to the Liberal Democrats for insisting on a stronger local government role in his health reforms. But there was certainly plenty of blue-sky thinking, reflected in the huge number of fringe sessions, many of them dealing with pretty heavyweight issues, from welfare reform, family deprivation to criminal justice, schools and the third sector. The Big Society fringes – indeed, most of the local government fringes – were invariably standing-room only, although no-one, as far as I could ascertain,was any clearer after them about just what Big Society means in practice. What, however, came over strongly was that for the current period leading up to the end of the year, everything is up for grabs. At the conference itself, there was almost a post-revolutionary zeal, as if the old order had been swept away, like the Bourbons or the Romanovs. Politics is in a state of flux, ministers are still susceptible to new ideas – indeed, are not even clear of their own. Policy is still being developed. Think-tanks are in an unprecedented position of influence. There are big opportunities, too, for local government, nervous about its future, although aware that localism is the flavour of the month, and on the fringes there was much talk of new and wider powers for it across welfare reform, health, social policy. The current post-revolutionary state will not last much beyond next spring. The Comprehensive Spending Revue and budgets will focus minds on grim, practical realities, and the limits to what governments can achieve. Michael Burton, Editor, The MJ

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WHITEHALL

Blue sky thinking in Birmingham

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