Birmingham conference reflections - at the conference and in the media
One of the most striking things I almost invariably find when I get home after attending a major conference - in my case I'm obviously talking about Conservative party conferences but friends in other parties (and yes, I do have one or two) tell me the same applies to theirs - is the difference between the conference I attended and the one the TV and newspapers reported.
The problem is that TV and newspaper journalists tend to show up with a preconceived narrative in their minds about what the conference is going to be like and look for evidence to fit that narrative. They can usually find enough to convince them that they're right and they go ahead and publish it - but this is not necessarily representative of what was really going on.
And sometimes people who should know better say things about a conference which are just plain wrong. Interestingly enough, this year I saw more or less the same completely wrong statement about the conference from which I have just returned from both a right-wing journalist and a left-wing journalist.
Fraser Nelson of the Spectator, in one of several excellent articles he wrote this week, much of which I agreed with, also included this line ...
"... if the Tories have ended up in a conference bereft of activists, but instead giving speeches which are politely applauded by lobbyists, then they can’t blame voter apathy."
Polly Toynbee of the Guardian made a similar and even less accurate comment about low numbers of people at the Conservative conference this week on the TV.
In fact there were more than 5,000 Conservative activists at the conference, which was apparently a record. The immense "Symphony Hall" at the ICC in Birmingham was frequently packed out with party members applauding vigorously and cheering, not lobbyists applauding politely. I could not get in to hear Theresa May or BoJo and had to watch them on the TV screen in Hall 1 (along with hundreds of other people) and was very lucky to get a seat in the packed hall to hear Hammond, Gove and Cameron today. And the people attending were not all elderly either, there were plenty of young people in their twenties and thirties as well as ages up from that.
Yes, all the main parties do need to do more to attract and engage with the people of Britain, expecially the young. But I know that because of what has been said to me on the doorstep and by fellow activists when I visit constituency associations to campaign with them. And definately not from the attendance at Conservative conference this week.
It was a conference which for those attending was well attended, positive, and had a "buzz" of enthusiasm.
Nor was it anything like as badly overshadowed by UKIP as the media seem to think. But the media were right about one thing - the party, and not just the leadership, is determined to campaign vigorously in the Rochester by-election. The party is not going to have to put pressure on anyone to get them to campaign in that election - party members the length and breadth of the UK are going to be queuing up.
Bring on the forthcoming by-elections and the General Election this year. We know we have a fight on our hands. We know that we cannot take victory for granted - but neither can anyone else. There is everything to play for.
The problem is that TV and newspaper journalists tend to show up with a preconceived narrative in their minds about what the conference is going to be like and look for evidence to fit that narrative. They can usually find enough to convince them that they're right and they go ahead and publish it - but this is not necessarily representative of what was really going on.
And sometimes people who should know better say things about a conference which are just plain wrong. Interestingly enough, this year I saw more or less the same completely wrong statement about the conference from which I have just returned from both a right-wing journalist and a left-wing journalist.
Fraser Nelson of the Spectator, in one of several excellent articles he wrote this week, much of which I agreed with, also included this line ...
"... if the Tories have ended up in a conference bereft of activists, but instead giving speeches which are politely applauded by lobbyists, then they can’t blame voter apathy."
Polly Toynbee of the Guardian made a similar and even less accurate comment about low numbers of people at the Conservative conference this week on the TV.
In fact there were more than 5,000 Conservative activists at the conference, which was apparently a record. The immense "Symphony Hall" at the ICC in Birmingham was frequently packed out with party members applauding vigorously and cheering, not lobbyists applauding politely. I could not get in to hear Theresa May or BoJo and had to watch them on the TV screen in Hall 1 (along with hundreds of other people) and was very lucky to get a seat in the packed hall to hear Hammond, Gove and Cameron today. And the people attending were not all elderly either, there were plenty of young people in their twenties and thirties as well as ages up from that.
Yes, all the main parties do need to do more to attract and engage with the people of Britain, expecially the young. But I know that because of what has been said to me on the doorstep and by fellow activists when I visit constituency associations to campaign with them. And definately not from the attendance at Conservative conference this week.
It was a conference which for those attending was well attended, positive, and had a "buzz" of enthusiasm.
Nor was it anything like as badly overshadowed by UKIP as the media seem to think. But the media were right about one thing - the party, and not just the leadership, is determined to campaign vigorously in the Rochester by-election. The party is not going to have to put pressure on anyone to get them to campaign in that election - party members the length and breadth of the UK are going to be queuing up.
Bring on the forthcoming by-elections and the General Election this year. We know we have a fight on our hands. We know that we cannot take victory for granted - but neither can anyone else. There is everything to play for.
Comments
or you go to a match, then you hear the press talking about it on the radio when you are going home, and again, you think, oh, there must have been another 2 teams of the same names playing somewhere.
And on the occasions when one of us had known the truth about an issue or event which had become a story in the national media, there was NOT ONE SINGLE INSTANCE where they had got all the details right.