Manchester Conference Diary - day one
I had already written my "Quotes of the Day" for the conference week and loaded them onto the system timed to publish each morning before setting off for Manchester in case I had trouble getting onto one of the computers around "Manchester Central."
Now thinking I might have done betters to wait and use some of the quotes I've been hearing around the conference.
David Cameron was on form this morning at the meeting of the National Conservative Convention (a private meeting of Conservative Constituency, Area, and Regional chairmen). I particularly liked his two line demolition of most of the ideas put forward at Labour conference last week.
"The problems were caused by too much borrowing, too much spending, and too much debt. The answer last week was more borrowing, more spending, and more debt."
He also made a very powerful point in response to a (Scottish Unionist) questioner who asked what we can do to avoid the breakup of the UK in the Scottish independence referendum next year.
While the Scots have to make their own decision, he suggested it is important for the rest of the UK to say to Scotland,
"We don't want you to go"
because the United Kingdom has been a good thing for all four nations which have taken part in it: good for Scotland and good for England. We are, to coin a phrase "Better together."
It was a brave decision to start the conference with a moving tribute to the late Baroness Thatcher - it seems such a long time since her death that it feels strange to realise that she died earlier this year. I thought when it closed "Now follow that" and it could easily have made the rest of the opening session into an anticlimax.
In the event, Grant Shapps managed to avoid this by linking a lot of his own speech into things Mrs Thatcher had made possible and things she believed.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond reacted with calm unflappability when one gentleman grabbed a microphone during his speech and started shouting at the minister. Hammond calmly offered to meet him after the session. After a shouting for a more moments the protestor stalked out of the hall, followed by a mob of journalists and paparazzi, while 99% of the people in the hall quietly returned to listening to the secretary of state's speech.
I thought this illustrated one difference between the Conservatives and Labour. Last time someone did something similar to a Labour cabinet minister at their party conference - I seem to recall that it was a concentration camp survivor called Walter Wolfgang - he was not just thrown out but arrested. Under the prevention of terrorism act I think, though he wasn't charged. Since he had accused the Labour Foreign secretary of making untrue statements about Iraq, they could probably have made a better case under section 2 of the official secrets act. But certainly no case under the libel laws, under which truth is a defence!
After speeches from the leaders of Britain's MEPs, the session finished with William Hague who gave a tour de force of foreign policy, including a description of the British initiative to outlaw the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Now thinking I might have done betters to wait and use some of the quotes I've been hearing around the conference.
David Cameron was on form this morning at the meeting of the National Conservative Convention (a private meeting of Conservative Constituency, Area, and Regional chairmen). I particularly liked his two line demolition of most of the ideas put forward at Labour conference last week.
"The problems were caused by too much borrowing, too much spending, and too much debt. The answer last week was more borrowing, more spending, and more debt."
He also made a very powerful point in response to a (Scottish Unionist) questioner who asked what we can do to avoid the breakup of the UK in the Scottish independence referendum next year.
While the Scots have to make their own decision, he suggested it is important for the rest of the UK to say to Scotland,
"We don't want you to go"
because the United Kingdom has been a good thing for all four nations which have taken part in it: good for Scotland and good for England. We are, to coin a phrase "Better together."
It was a brave decision to start the conference with a moving tribute to the late Baroness Thatcher - it seems such a long time since her death that it feels strange to realise that she died earlier this year. I thought when it closed "Now follow that" and it could easily have made the rest of the opening session into an anticlimax.
In the event, Grant Shapps managed to avoid this by linking a lot of his own speech into things Mrs Thatcher had made possible and things she believed.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond reacted with calm unflappability when one gentleman grabbed a microphone during his speech and started shouting at the minister. Hammond calmly offered to meet him after the session. After a shouting for a more moments the protestor stalked out of the hall, followed by a mob of journalists and paparazzi, while 99% of the people in the hall quietly returned to listening to the secretary of state's speech.
I thought this illustrated one difference between the Conservatives and Labour. Last time someone did something similar to a Labour cabinet minister at their party conference - I seem to recall that it was a concentration camp survivor called Walter Wolfgang - he was not just thrown out but arrested. Under the prevention of terrorism act I think, though he wasn't charged. Since he had accused the Labour Foreign secretary of making untrue statements about Iraq, they could probably have made a better case under section 2 of the official secrets act. But certainly no case under the libel laws, under which truth is a defence!
After speeches from the leaders of Britain's MEPs, the session finished with William Hague who gave a tour de force of foreign policy, including a description of the British initiative to outlaw the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war.
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