IT'S once in a blue moon that Mrs Sudworth asks me a question about politics.
But last week she had occasion to while we were watching coverage of the Lib Dem and Labour conferences.
Just as I was about to get up to make a cuppa, she piped up: "David, why do they have party conferences?"
A moot question indeed.
I explained that many years ago, deep in the midsts of time, conference was the place where party policy was formulated after hours of debate and a few pints of blood (and beer) had been spilled.
Howadays, it's just some kind of political beauty contest for leadership plotters/contenders and a chance for media types to escape from their offices for a week.
Back in the day (much longer ago than I can remember), conferences I'm told were always a hive of excitement. Maggie's 'the lady is not for turning', Kinnock's lambasting of Derek Hatton's Militant group in Liverpool... these were moments to treasure. Nowadays, many MPs try to emulate previous conference triumphs but always seem to fail dismally.
Perhaps it's because the main parties have - to the general public at least - become clones of each other. They don't see any differences and that must be a turn off.
Maybe parties being polar opposites politically isn't necessarily the best thing for the country, but it sure does make for some electric speeches.
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Fox Force 5 wrote...
Remember Neil and Glenys Kinnock being chased down the beach by a wave, half falling over, and then the talkative taffy flicking the vees at the camera crew who'd been capturing their moment of quiet reflection? Spin doctors would never let that happen these days. More's the pity.
Posted by: Fox Force 5 | October 1, 2007 12:06 PM