Forthcoming Events
After a productive planning meeting last night, we thought we’d let you into what we’ve been up to. These are our ideas – and we want to hear yours (that’s why the comment box is there at the bottom) – and whilst some may not come to fruition, we’re doing our best to bring the best speakers to Bradford to discuss the topics you want debated.
Devolution is Coming
One of the earliest posts asked you to vote for future topics. Voting for topics is, we think, a great idea and allows you to tell us what matters. Devolution and Elected Mayors came top – easily – but getting speakers and a date hasn’t been so easy.
We’re working hard to put these events on but finding out who the right people are and finding the right night for them is proving problematic. We’re faithfully committed to two debates: one involving think tanks, business people and the Combined Authority or Local Enterprise Partnership; and another involving local serving and former MPs.
We have had much interest from speakers; finding the right date to suit all these busy people is another matter. To give you an idea, we’re looking at November as the earliest date we can get our speakers together for the Elected Mayors debate – but it’ll be worth the wait.
In short – devolution is coming… like the plans for rail electrification, it’s just delayed.
Bradford West Special: Reflections & Thoughts on the Bradford West Campaign
Put the date in your diary: Sunday 26th July.
(Tickets to be released once we’ve confirmed which candidates are attending)
A really exciting event for us. Although half our founding members don’t live in Bradford West, it was the thrilling, exhilarating, often gob-smacking battle for Bradford West which was a catalyst for Politics in the Pub.
Bradford West got loads of us talking about politics, made politics real & relevant to us, and had the eyes of the world (well, certainly London, Manhattan, Mirpur and more) fixed on Bradford. At times it was ugly – but people were paying attention to politicians & their politics.
We want to bring back some of that passion and relive some of the drama – whilst giving the candidates a chance to reminisce about the election and asking them to share what they learned on campaign trail about priorities for Bradford West to its new MP, Naz Shah.
We’re also hoping to have this event ‘on the road’ to allow more people to come along.
Keep the afternoon of 26th July free – this one’s going to be special.
British Science Festival Fringe
We’re delighted that Bradford put on such a great show the last time it hosted the British Science Festival, Bradford’s been picked again.
To show our support, we’re in talks to be part of the festival fringe with a Science & Politics Special. More information will come when we know it – but we’re really excited about the possibility of working with the British Science Festival, Bradford Science Festival and The University of Bradford – and such an event would fit perfectly with our ethos of expanding political discussion whilst we #BigUpBradford.
Future Topics
In the mean time, as you wait, breath baited, for our Bradford West 
event, you can have your say on future topics. As has been shown with the devolution debate, turning your vote into an event is not always as smooth as we’d like but, please believe us, we are doing our best to make sure that the topics you care about are discussed and debated by the people best placed to give you an entertaining evening of political discussion and debate.
Vote on which topics you’d like discussed in future – and if you want to suggest, just leave a comment below.
Politics in the Pub 
4 July 2015 at 9.52 pm
i’m sorry I missed the first sesh, really want to go to a forthcoming one. But I’m confused about why you need guest speakers – to the extent that you can’t discuss devolution till November (by when we’ll have been saddled with whatever we’re going to be saddled with). There’ll be a reason why you want these usual suspects to have their say again, but I can’t work out what it is.
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5 July 2015 at 12.14 pm
A great question and point.
In short, yes, I agree (and I’m speaking just for myself, not the rest of the group, but I think they’d agree with me) that our event should’ve been sooner.
The first point about speakers and why we need them is twofold. First, we need a draw to get people to come. Also, we want people to know and understand more by the time they leave, and experts cover this. I’m relatively politically engaged but don’t think I understand enough about the majority of subjects (and certainly not devolution).
Why wait until November for one of the debates? The people we hope to have coming, Gerry Sutcliffe and Philip Davies (and maybe Greg Mulholland), are experts, quite a draw for people and have interesting views on elected mayors – with Sutcliffe and Davies going against their party lines and Mulholland having a third point for an all-Yorkshire mayor. In short, it’ll be very interesting. The problem is getting three very busy people, two of whom spend most of their time in London, in a room together (and in Bradford on a week night). That’s why we’re looking at November (during Parliament’s recess) to bring them together.
In the mean time, we hope to have a different debate on devolution in August. It’s proving difficult to find speakers and get them in the same room (or just to come to Bradford – but that’s something I plan to blog on this week). We had hoped to have this debate in July – we just couldn’t put it together in time.
Finally, I think one of your points about if we need speakers suggests that part of such an event is socialising and discussing politics with others. Feedback we got from the first event agrees with this and we’ll be having more time to talk with others and using a bigger space.
Thanks for your comments – I hope I’ve answered your queries.
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