Birmingham Conference Diary - Sunday afternoon
The first afternoon of this year's Conservative Conference rapidly took on something of the characteristic of a rally. Having given a fairly robust performance to a private Conservative audience earlier in the morning, party chairman Grant Shapps gave a rousing performance to open the conference proper. Mostly knockabout stuff, but with a strong list of achievements.
He also made the first announcement of the conference - after listing some of the things which make Birmingham a great British city, he announced that the Conservatives have signed a deal to come back here in 2016, 2018, and 2020.
For anyone who thinks that the way a party manages its' own affairs may give a clue to how it may manage those of the country, he pointed out that the Conservatives were in a position to sign such a deal because the party is now debt-free.
Let's hope this is an indicator that the Conservatives may succeed in moving Britain closer to being debt-free - it certainly seems reasonable to argue that a party which can balance its' own books has a better chance of balancing those of the nation.
This was followed by a session on the United Kingdom which amounted to a celebration of the Union, closing with an excellent speech by the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson.
The public part of the afternoon (there is a private question and answer session with the Party Chairmen shortly) concluded with a speech from William Hague which redefined the word "barnstorming."
It is not too often that the Chancellor of the Exchequer acts as someone's warm-up man, but this was an extraordinary occasion from the moment it was announced that the chancellor would be introducing the next speaker and we all wondered if we had heard correctly.
It was billed as William Hague's last speech from the rostrum at a Conservative conference: I'm not 100% sure that will prove accurate as we never know what the future may bring, but it will be his last as an MP and minister as he is stepping down at the election.
And what a speech!
William is one of the half a dozen best orators, and the best Conservative orator, of my generation, indeed of my lifetime, bearing comparison with Tony Benn or Tony Blair. And this speech was one of his best.
He segued smoothly between celebrating the achievements of successive Conservative governments over the past forty years to filleting successive Labour leaderships over that period in general, and the current Labour leadership in particular.
I don't know how any short extracts which made it onto the TV will have gone down outside the conference hall - probably without much impact, I suspect. The impact in the hall was very different and the atmosphere electric. What this afternoon certainly achieved was to sooth any nerves which may have been tense after the events of the last few days and ensure that people here will be focussed over the next few days on which needs to be done for the country and on what the party needs to do to win the forthcoming election.
He also made the first announcement of the conference - after listing some of the things which make Birmingham a great British city, he announced that the Conservatives have signed a deal to come back here in 2016, 2018, and 2020.
For anyone who thinks that the way a party manages its' own affairs may give a clue to how it may manage those of the country, he pointed out that the Conservatives were in a position to sign such a deal because the party is now debt-free.
Let's hope this is an indicator that the Conservatives may succeed in moving Britain closer to being debt-free - it certainly seems reasonable to argue that a party which can balance its' own books has a better chance of balancing those of the nation.
This was followed by a session on the United Kingdom which amounted to a celebration of the Union, closing with an excellent speech by the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson.
The public part of the afternoon (there is a private question and answer session with the Party Chairmen shortly) concluded with a speech from William Hague which redefined the word "barnstorming."
It is not too often that the Chancellor of the Exchequer acts as someone's warm-up man, but this was an extraordinary occasion from the moment it was announced that the chancellor would be introducing the next speaker and we all wondered if we had heard correctly.
It was billed as William Hague's last speech from the rostrum at a Conservative conference: I'm not 100% sure that will prove accurate as we never know what the future may bring, but it will be his last as an MP and minister as he is stepping down at the election.
And what a speech!
William is one of the half a dozen best orators, and the best Conservative orator, of my generation, indeed of my lifetime, bearing comparison with Tony Benn or Tony Blair. And this speech was one of his best.
He segued smoothly between celebrating the achievements of successive Conservative governments over the past forty years to filleting successive Labour leaderships over that period in general, and the current Labour leadership in particular.
I don't know how any short extracts which made it onto the TV will have gone down outside the conference hall - probably without much impact, I suspect. The impact in the hall was very different and the atmosphere electric. What this afternoon certainly achieved was to sooth any nerves which may have been tense after the events of the last few days and ensure that people here will be focussed over the next few days on which needs to be done for the country and on what the party needs to do to win the forthcoming election.
Comments