As I write this, I am about to head off to spend some time at each of the three main party conferences – no doubt they will still be going on by the time you read it.
During most of my career as a local government officer, or a government official, the last two weeks of September and the first week of October was a time to bid your politicians farewell for the week and get on with other things.
Now, however, I pack my suitcase as well. Why?
The potential to influence those in government, as well as those aspiring to be so, is, unsurprisingly, exaggerated by the parties themselves and the public affairs and lobbying companies. But there is no doubt that these events do provide a marketplace for some competing ideas about the future.
We, of course, want the voice of London and in particular London local government to be heard clearly in that sort of forum. At any party conference it would be important to argue why the final year of a three year deal on concessionary fares should not be suddenly dumped, or why some of the poorest tenants in the country need their homes invested in, as well as making it clear why London has such pressing needs in respect of additional funding for primary school places – a case that London Councils has played a leading national role in making.
At the last set of conferences before a general election, however, it is even more important that we can make the case for the sort of increased effectiveness and efficiency that can be secured by giving London boroughs greater freedom and influence over the commissioning of a wider set of local public services.
As others, including Simon Jenkins, have pointed out recently, London's local government has shown the way in terms of both innovation and efficiency.
Beyond all of that, however, there is a further attraction that is harder to capture in a tangible way, but is important nonetheless. For a politically-led membership organisation, engaging with our own leading councillors from each of the main parties as they interact with their own party colleagues – from ministers and shadow ministers right through to local activists – provides vital and privileged insight.
We live in an age that is highly cynical about political activity and politicians – in some cases that cynicism is understandable.
Without becoming too unfashionable about this, however, the energy, passion and curiosity of those turning up as delegates in Bournemouth, Brighton and Manchester does say something quite important and positive about the commitment that many still have to contributing to our civic life through political activity.
John O'Brien is chief executive of London Councils
