Zero Degrees

I was absolutely bowled over this week by a dance production that I saw at Sadlers Wells. A collaboration between Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (both dancers), Nitin Sawhney and Antony Gormley. The programme says that 'zero degrees explores borders - between countries, cultures and, most importantly, between life and death'. It may sound a little pretentious but it REALLY worked and the story-telling, beautiful music, incredible athleticism from the dancers and their interaction with the Gormley life-size casts, made for a mesmerising evening. If you ever get this see these guys collaborating again, you must go!

Conference Blues

The observant among you will notice that I forgot to blog about the party conference this year. This is in part due to laziness but I was also pretty fed up with all the coverage. There was some pretty sensible debate on the fringe (although most of the meetings are run and taken over by professionals - like me - and everything seemed a bit sanitised and lacking conviction) but the only story the media were interested in was the non-election. At Lib-Dems, there could have been some good public debate around the regularisation of migrants (scroll down) but the journalists only seemed to care about Ming - there might be a story now but there wasn't one in mid-September. So I'm pretty fed-up - yes the Prime Minister could have killed the election speculation and must take some responsibility but the media have driven the political agenda over the last month and I find it depressing.

CSM stuff went really well - we had a well-attended conference service, with Leslie Griffiths speaking on the Beatitudes (GB did the reading) and some great songs from Andy Flan. Because of work (not lie-ins!), I didn't get to all the breakfast meetings, but I was able to make it along to the event with Jack Straw focusing on inequality and the wide-ranging social consequences of unequal societies. Definitely food for thought and it was encouraging the see the Secretary of State so engaged in the dicussion. And yes, I made my conference debut - no photos I'm afraid, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to speak alongside Ed Miliband and to think about how values drive our voluntary action.

On the subject of voluntary action, I've been thinking a bit about whether it is appropriate for charities to speak on the main stage at conference. There seems to be a trend (particularly noticeable at Conservative Conference) for celebrities and charities to address conference, and I'm not really convinced that this is the right place for them. At the very least, there is a certain political naivety I think - in appearing to endorse a party agenda. Don't know what anyone else thinks...

So I have THREE questions that came out of conference:
1. Who is holding the media to account in this country?
2. How can CSM push Government to take inequality, not just poverty, seriously
3. Should charities accept invitations to speak on main stage at any party conference?