Conference

At this time of year many MPs and Party activists head off to Manchester, Brighton, Birmingham or elsewhere to their party’s Conference.

For all political parties, Conference has traditionally been a way for the leadership to keep in touch with its party members, and encourage filtering of grass-roots politics up to a higher level. It has also acted as an opportunity to ‘rally the troops’ in advance of a forthcoming election.

The nature of Conference has evolved in recent years. Lobbyists can now outnumber party activists and use the conferences as an opportunity to publicise their message or try to obtain support for their particular cause.  However, there is a value in this work; charities in particular need to highlight any impact that Government policy is having on their area of interest. Attending conference and explaining this to MPs can be a vital part of their work.

Conference still has its moments of drama that can have a huge impact on the political landscape. David Cameron’s dramatic speech in 2007 is often credited with seeing off Gordon Brown’s chances of calling an election early when he first became Prime Minister. The media will watch each party leader give their speech to see the reaction of the audience as much as anything else. A bad conference for a party cannot only affect morale in that party but also affect the party’s standing with the public.

Each political party sees their conference as a vital way of getting their message out in what will hopefully be a controlled manner for them but no matter how stage managed a conference can be, there will still be opportunities for the media to comment on the ‘story behind the story’ and any ‘slip up’ or ‘gaffe’ from a senior politician.