<p>I arrived in Brighton with two speeches in my pocket. One was on the bedroom tax with opening lines reflecting my fondness for&nbsp;Shakespeare, &quot;I am here to bury the bedroom tax not to praise it&quot; (a misquote from Julius Caesar).&nbsp;However, Ed Miliband blew that out of the water the day before by announcing that he would abolish it if he becomes Prime Minister.&nbsp;That of course meant that my speech was consigned to the bin!</p> <p>My second speech was on the Council’s &quot;Business supporting, business winning&quot; initiative to bring new business and jobs to our borough.&nbsp;It was a proud moment to go up to the rostrum and talk on the national stage about Telford&nbsp;and Wrekin as a place of optimism and opportunity.&nbsp;It was well received by all and I hope that everyone who is proud of our borough will also use any such opportunity to tell people – whether it’s a conference or down the pub, about the great things that are happening here.</p> <p>Walking into or out of the conference hall can be quite a challenging&nbsp; task – campaign and lobby groups all thrusting&nbsp;their leaflets on to your face – HS2 (High Speed 2) Keep East Coast on Track, Save the MOD guard services, Save the Royal Mail, Save Kids from cigarettes to name just a few.</p> <p>By the fourth day&nbsp;the inflatable white elephant outside the conference symbolically highlighting the campaigners view of HS2 was beginning to lose its puff and was just about standing by the strength of his trunk touching the ground.</p> <p>So, after four very busy days and very late nights, was it worth it?&nbsp;To spread the message of the great work that is going on in Telford&nbsp;and Wrekin, then that’s an emphatic ‘Yes’.</p> <p>Will I do it again next year? In 12 months’ time our story will have moved forward even further, so that too is an emphatic 'Yes'.</p>
