PARTY CONFERENCES
Conference Adam Hewitt summarises the three main parties’ conferences. A party of power not protest It
was not an especially memorable conference for the Liberal Democrats,
most would admit. There is a good chance that more people will remember leader Nick Clegg’s pre-conference apology for raising tuition fees – or its auto-tuned remix.
But at Brighton, Clegg’s key message was that the party is now one of power, not just protest, which brings with it tough decisions. He said: “Our mettle has been tested in the toughest of circumstances, and we haven’t been found wanting.”
Clegg explained: “If voters want a party of opposition – a ‘stop the world I want to get off’ party – they’ve got plenty of options, but we are not one of them. There’s a better, more meaningful future waiting for us. Not as the third party, but as one of three parties of government.”
There were some good-news announcements on core Lib Dem issues including an extra £55m to help 110,000 children struggling with maths and English in secondary school, to come in from January 2013. Schools will get to decide how to spend the money – a key element of the Lib Dem pupil premium, too.
season
One Nation L
abour left Manchester with a successful conference under its belt. Ed Miliband’s
personal poll ratings – which have lagged far behind the party’s own standing – saw a real bounce.
As so often, it’s hard to think that many people actually saw his speech, but they would have got a sense from the media coverage of it that Miliband is gaining confi dence as leader and has a coherent vision for the country.
There are some intellectual fl aws with ‘One Nation’ Labour, which does rather go against the party’s pluralistic traditions, suggesting
Plan A, fi ring on all cylinders T
he media loves leadership shenanigans – so much more interesting than all that policy
stuff – and with Vince Cable behaving himself and Ed Miliband establishing himself, it was at the Conservative conference where the intrigue boiled over. And all because of Boris, who had a great Olympics and retains a far greater appeal to the electorate, in particular non-Tories, than the current Prime Minister.
That’s all in the future – Johnson isn’t even an MP (yet) – but it’s just another diffi culty for No 10, which also got bad economic news from the IMF and was still dealing with the fall-
14 | public sector executive Sep/Oct 12
out from incidents including Andrew Mitchell swearing at police, Jeremy Hunt backing a big cut in the abortion limit, and DfT civil servants messing up a multi-million pound rail franchise competition.
Activists didn’t get a referendum on the EU, but they did get tough sounding announcements on crime and justice issues, an employee- ownership in exchange for giving up workers’ rights scheme, and a promise to keep cutting welfare benefi ts.
A lot of it did sound like promises to keep the party happy – not announcements with the wider electorate in mind.
everyone has to think the same way, but it was a smart move politically and has clearly rattled the Conservatives. It was an attempt to try to move the centre ground, rather than move to it, and did a good job of making banker-bashing seem patriotic rather than just populist.
At fringe event after fringe event, though, people asked what Labour would do on issues or asked for assurances on this or that, and had to be rebuffed. Not that unusual for an opposition party, perhaps, but without some fi rmer policies, people will judge the party based on how it acted in power – which, in many cases, is a long way distant from how it sounds now, especially in areas like NHS and higher education reform.
© Simon J Newbury
© Paul Toeman
© Liberal Democrats
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