Emma at the LGC

A4e's Emma Harrison has been one of the plenary speakers at the Local Government Conference in Birmingham. (She's billed as Dr. Emma Harrison - not sure when she got her PhD.) Two tweets about it: "Great presentation by Emma Harrison urging UK to assist 'negative millionaires' in to work" and "Packed hall for this morning's plenary on boosting private sector growth. Dr Emma Harrison of A4E speaking". I wonder what a "negative millionaire" is. No, don't tell me. There's a report of the speech on localgov.co.uk which highlights Harrison's apparent expertise in the area of Local Enterprise Partnerships. She told delegates that if the government turned down a region's application for a LEP, the authorities and local business should go ahead and form one anyway. "The call for direct action by councils and businesses met with a great deal of approval within the audience." The article ends: "Ms Harrison – who is advising the prime minister on back-to-work programmes for the long-term unemployed - urged authorities to support as far as possible low-cost regimes designed to help the unemployed sustain work for charities and small businesses in order to make them ‘work ready’." Now, read that sentence again, slowly. It means that local councils should put money into charities and small businesses so that they can give work placements (not jobs) to the unemployed. Hmm. But this sort of event is all about networking and consolidating Harrison's image as the government's guru.

Mark Lovell has been to meetings in the Cabinet Office and has been invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party. Roy Newey, meanwhile, has been meeting the Chinese premier before setting off for India. It's all go!