All over the political spectrum people are recovering from party conference season including the media and corporate exhibitors. The big three are done with the SNP remaining next week however it all got me thinking
1. Isn’t a four day love-in a bit long for any delegates in non-political jobs? Commentators claimed that Labour attendance shrank after Brown’s speech on Tuesday but that’s probably because the delegates had to flee back to work. The Tories were trapped until yesterday.
2. At around an hour, the leader’s speeches are over-long, particularly as they are chopped for tv. Lots of the commentary on Cameron said it looked better on the news-bulletins than in the hall, probably because an hour is an age where everyone feels time-poor. Surely for leaders to distill their argument into a shorter space would be more challenging.
3. Policy-making is almost zilch at all of them nowadays. They are effectively rallies.
Just some thoughts to mull over on a Friday anyway – as seen this morning on BBC Breakfast News in case anyone was watching.
UPDATE: Cif post by me on this here
2 comments
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October 12, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Sophie Baxter
I am writing a dissertation about the political party cnferences in Manchester. Would be great to get your email Rupa for research purposes!
Sophie
October 12, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Julian Ware-Lane
I agree about the length of the leader’s speech. I suggest that Gordon Brown speak for about twenty minutes maximum. His was actually quite rich on detail (see http://warelane.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/gordon-browns-policy-announcements/), but these could have been released in other ways.
I am not bothered about the actual length of the conference – I do not go to every one. However, I am looking forward to the day Southend gets one.