Hazel Blears, fresh from the announcement of a £50m support package for councils and migrants, and migrant workers themselves will be joined by Welsh First Minister, Rhodri Morgan and Sir Emyr Jones Parry, the outgoing British permanent representative to the UN at the SOLACE conference in Cardiff this week Tuesday to Thursday.

The conference in the Cardiff Arena will focus on the impact of the mass movement of international labour as well as the influence of economic and environmental global forces on the world of local government.

SOLACE, the UK local council chief executives’ organisation, has assembled an international cast that will include Ai Qin Lin, the star of the Nick Broomfield film Ghosts about the death of cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay.  In a special Question Time session on Wednesday afternoon five migrant workers including Ai Qin, Polish workers and a young woman from Lebanon, will speak for themselves about their experiences of arriving in the UK. (Wednesday 3.45pm)

Pollster Ben Page from Ipsos MORI will present exclusive research on chief executives’ social attitudes, including their views on migrant workers.(Thursday 2.15pm)

Other highlights of the three day conference are:

• For the first time a Cabinet Minister will give the keynote speech to conference on Thursday afternoon.  Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government will be on stage at 3.45pm.

• Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister for Wales, is addressing the conference at 2pm earlier in the afternoon on Thursday.

• Stephen Aldridge, the Director of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, will talk at 9.30am Wednesday on the Strategic Challenges Facing the UK.

• Sir Emyr Jones Parry, GCMG, Recent British Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) and former UK Permanent Representative on the North Atlantic Council (NATO) speaking on local government and global democracy at 10.15am Wednesday.

Full details at: www.solaceconference.org.uk