The next debate in the University of Liverpool’s Policy Provocations series will be broadcast live on Radio Merseyside.
Considering issues around immigration, it features Alp Mehmet, Vice Chairman of Migration Watch UK and Don Flynn, Director of the Migrant Rights Network. It will be chaired by Roger Phillips, and broadcast live to around 100,000 listeners as part of his regular daily show. Roger has chaired the Policy Provocations debates, on behalf of the University, since 2014.
A new level
Matthew Cliff, Operations Manager for the University’s Heseltine Institute for Public Policy and Practice, runs the series.
He said: “More people than ever before came to last year’s Policy Provocations debates, but this collaboration with Radio Merseyside has taken the series to a new level.
“When we began Policy Provocations in 2011, we wanted to engage people across the whole city on the big issues that affect us all. Next week’s live broadcast will reach a whole new audience and it will be great to hear our panellists and the public tackling one of the hottest election topics live on air.”
The debate will take place in front of a live audience within the walls of the BBC’s Liverpool base, on Hanover Street, between 12pm and 2pm on Tuesday 24 March.
Audience members, and radio listeners, will be encouraged to ask questions throughout the programme. The event will also be live-tweeted through @livuniheseltine, with social media users able to join the conversation by using the hashtag #policyprov.
Packed houses
Policy Provocations 2014 series played to packed houses at venues across the city, from the Museum of Liverpool to the Isla Gladstone Conservatory in north Liverpool’s Stanley Park. Previous debates have considered issues ranging from the future of the NHS, to whether London holds back the rest of the UK and the value, or otherwise, of membership of the EU.
The Heseltine Institute for Public Policy and Practice was launched by former Minister for Merseyside, Michael Heseltine, in 2013. It aims to have a sustained impact on academic and policy debates about a crucial contemporary challenge: the development of successful, sustainable city regions in an unstable global world
Policy Provocations: Bordering on the impossible – What kind of immigration do we want and how can we achieve it? will be broadcast live on Radio Merseyside 95.8FM on Tuesday 24 March. To find out more, and enter a ballot for a limited number of audience tickets, visit: http://www.liv.ac.uk/heseltine-institute/policy-provocations/bordering-on-the-impossible/
