You say you want a revolution..

Andy Burnham gave the sort of polished performance you expect of a Secretary of State who uses a professional speechwriter. Lyn Brown MP gave us one from the heart - emotional, honest, authentic.

I've known Lyn for years - from back in the day when we both did stuff for the former Association of Metropolitan Authorities and both served on the former Library and Information Services Council for England.She's always been passionate about libraries and what they can do to enrich people's lives. She's an East Ender (although her dad came from North London which is why she's Arsenal not West Ham - a choice she describes as the first political decision she ever made, aged six) and she's seen at first hand the way that libraries can change lives.

Since she was elected to Parliament (MP for - of course - West Ham) in 2005 she's done great things to raise the profile of libraries - through the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Libraries Literacy and Information Management which she chairs, and also in her role as a Parliamentary Private Secretary. As PPS to Phil Woolas when he was Minister of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government she got Martin Molloy and myself into a room with the Minister and senior officals to discuss how libraries can contribute to the community agenda. As PPS to John Denham, Secretary of State in the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills, she's been instrumental in connecting the DIUS agenda with the possibilities offered by libraries. As I said in introducing her session (which was, officially, the CILIP lunchtime briefing session) at PLA, she's a true champion of libraries.

At PLA on Thursday Lyn reprised some of the themes of her speech a couple of months ago to the joint conference of the Public Libraries Group and the Branch and Mobiles Group - the importance of libraries, the concerns raised by the Conway report, the need for strong leadership - but this time she went further: suggesting that MLA isn't up to the job and calling for a National Development Agency for Libraries; and announcing an Inquiry into the leadership and governance of public libraries in England to be carried oyut by the APPG.

Lyn's stance could be predicted, given her well-documented track record of working to retain the London Library Development Agency and not have it absorbed into MLA-London. But her blunt dismissal of MLA will have shocked delegates - perhaps because we've all got used to bland urbanity rather than raw honesty from our politicians -  and her announcement of the APPG Inquiry clearly puzzled some people: how will the APPG Inquiry relate to the DCMS Review announced by Andy Burnham. Are library reviews like busses - you wait a while for one, and then two come along at once?

I chaired Lyn's session and then, in the evening, escorted Lyn to the usual round of pre-dinner receptions as well as to the conference dinner itself (cue reminiscences from Lyn and Steve Rotheram about past games involving Liverpool and Arsenal). It was clear that her speech had been the one really controversial moment in the conference, and opinions were split: "refreshingly honest" to "dangerously divisive." But at least Lyn got people talking - and for many of the conference delegates (particularly the new professionals) her speech will have been their first taste of politics in the raw. It's going to be interesting, in the coming months, to see how the APPG Inquiry (commissioned by an All Party Group and therefore independent of government) and the DCMS Review (commissioned by the government) will get along together. Your correspondent is the only LIS professional with an inside track on both. Watch this space...