Runnymede will be attending all three party conferences this year, and members of the team will be blogging throughout to keep you updated on all the developments.

Keep an eye on The Runnymede Westminster Monitor over the following dates:

• Lib Dem conference (Liverpool): 18th - 22nd September
• Labour conference (Manchester): 26th - 30th September
• Conservative conference (Birmingham): 3rd - 6th October

If you're attending conference this year, be sure to attend Voice4Change's fringe events on equality, fairness and the big society - Runnymede will be speaking at this event across all three conferences. The event will take place on the following days:

Today's blog post has been written by Runnymede intern Sarah Sternberg

Last week, a report issued by MigrationWatch provoked much media coverage for its claims that recent immigration to the UK has caused higher unemployment. These claims, based in part on newly-released ONS statistics, have been rebuffed in an article by Sarah Mulley, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Mulley questions the authority of the report on the basis of its interpretation of the statistics, arguing that inappropriate methodology has resulted in misleading conclusions. In particular, she highlights MigrationWatch's failure to distinguish between absolute and relative numbers of migrants and young people across local authorities, the fact that the report looks at unemployment levels for 2008/9 rather than considering change over time in unemployment, and their overall conflation of correlation with causation, as key factors contributing to its erroneous conclusion.

Moreover, Mulley warns that the dissemination of such misleading information is harmful to a meaningful debate on immigration. She argues that without consistent, suitable and accurate research methodologies, reports like this one serve to damage the credibility of any claims about immigration, and its impact on the economy. As Mulley herself notes; "If MigrationWatch want to engage seriously on the question of migration and employment, they need to go back to their statistics textbooks".

Today's post is written by Runnymede's public affairs intern Gordon Nelson

A delegation of politicians, religious leaders and campaigners are in London today to ask the government to ban a planned demonstration by the fair-right EDL. As reported in the Guardian newspaper yesterday, the EDL is planning to descend on Bradford over the August bank holiday weekend with between 5,000 and 10,000 supporters.

The delegation will present a petition signed by 10,000 Bradford residents to Home Office officials calling on the police and government to ban the demonstration. They argue that the EDL is attempting to provoke trouble in a city that is still recovering from riots in 2001 that followed an attempted march by the National Front, another far right organization.

West Yorkshire police will make a decision next week on whether the EDL demonstration should go ahead. Theresa May will then make the final decision on whether the march should be banned or not. Bradford West MP Marsha Singh added that ‘The Conservative government was elected on a policy of localism, of giving people a greater say in the running of their community. Now is the time to see if they mean it.’     

Today's post has been written by Runnymede's public affairs intern Gordon Nelson

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has this month launched a series of guidance documents on the Equality Act.  The documents explain the Act itself - which comes into force this October - and give practical examples on how the law has changed. The advice is offered to employers, workers, service providers and service users and explains how these groups will be affected by the legislative changes. The guidance does not come into effect until October 1.

The documents are available here.

Today's blog post is written by Runnymede's public affairs intern Gordon Nelson

Elizabeth Musa is set to make history if elected to the Welsh Assembly next year. As reported on the Operation Black Vote blog, Musa has been selected to stand as the South Cardiff and Penarth candidate for Plaid Cymru in next year’s Assembly elections. If elected, Musa would become the first woman from a minority ethnic background to sit on the Assembly.

Musa is currently a careworker and community activist who has campaigned for many social justice issues. She also spearheaded the creation of the OBV MP shadowing scheme which aims to nurture future leaders, and encourage and inspire BME communities to engage in civil society.  

In the final wave of answers to parliamentary written answers from the government last week, home office minister Baroness Neville-Jones provided figures for the amount of funding paid through the Prevent scheme, and re-iterated the government’s commitment to review the scheme by January 2011.

Responding to a questions from Conservative peer Lord Sheikh, Neville-Jones said that funding specifically paid through the Prevent counterterrorism programme by the Home Office, Office for Security and Counter-terrorism (OSCT), in the financial year 2009-10 was approximately £30 million. She added that Prevent activity is also funded separately by other government departments.

Today's post was written by Runnymede's public affairs intern Gordon Nelson

The Parliamentary Press Gallery has announced the launch of a new diversity scheme to address the lack of ethnic diversity among reporters in the press gallery. In particular, the scheme intends to give black and minority ethnic (BME) journalists the opportunity to participate in political reporting, as well as to help them network with MPs and prospective employers. The scheme is open to any BME reporter working for a news outlet that is not already represented in the gallery.

Under the scheme, reporters become a member of the gallery for three months and are given a desk and security clearance. They are required to file stories for their media organizations on a wide range of local and political issues.

For those of you interested, the closing date is 3 September. You can find out more information here.