It's several years since I attended Labour Spring Conference. Four in fact. In spring 2004 Blair was probably at the nadir of his leadership and I recall sitting up with a pal till 5am arguing the toss with a group of Young Labour people .I hope they have learned the error of their ways because actually, they were enthusiastic Party members who had simply never known anything other than New Labour. In those days, I naively thought that the removal of Blair would be some kind of panacea for the ills besetting the Party. Which was pretty stupid. It is different policies, not different leaders, which change things A mixture of both would of course be udeal......
Looking back, the conference itself was a mish-mash of speeches by Ministers, seminars and, of course, no votes. Not even a fringe to make it worthwhile.
Four years on, the Guardian reports an absence of corporate sponsors, absence of stalls and most importantly, an absence of members. Not surprising. Only those with a vested interest ie PPCs, would-be PPCs and carerists could be enthusiastic about it. One delegate on CiF reports that Brown's speech was received in a lukewarm fashion with many delegates sitting stony-faced . UPDATE: Yet the Guardian on-line is now reporting a "rock star's welcome." for Brown So which is it ?
My guess is somewhere inbetween. These days, those who go to Spring Conference really are the New Labour faithful, an ever-dwindling band of true believers. The rest of us stay at home.
I've now had the chance to look at Brown's speech and depressingly butnot surprisingly he's still using the "n" ie New Labour word. Still banging on in DailyMail[-style about the "British way of life." Blending decent enough aims like worming to fight child poverty with frankly indecent proposals like a points systems for "managed" migration, "personalised" services , consumer "choice." . In short the same tired old mantras we heard under Blair for 10 long years.
I hope some people HAVE had positive experiences at the conference.I'll save my pennies till the autumn - when at least we might be able to rally some opposition and dissent .
Looking back, the conference itself was a mish-mash of speeches by Ministers, seminars and, of course, no votes. Not even a fringe to make it worthwhile.
Four years on, the Guardian reports an absence of corporate sponsors, absence of stalls and most importantly, an absence of members. Not surprising. Only those with a vested interest ie PPCs, would-be PPCs and carerists could be enthusiastic about it. One delegate on CiF reports that Brown's speech was received in a lukewarm fashion with many delegates sitting stony-faced . UPDATE: Yet the Guardian on-line is now reporting a "rock star's welcome." for Brown So which is it ?
My guess is somewhere inbetween. These days, those who go to Spring Conference really are the New Labour faithful, an ever-dwindling band of true believers. The rest of us stay at home.
I've now had the chance to look at Brown's speech and depressingly butnot surprisingly he's still using the "n" ie New Labour word. Still banging on in DailyMail[-style about the "British way of life." Blending decent enough aims like worming to fight child poverty with frankly indecent proposals like a points systems for "managed" migration, "personalised" services , consumer "choice." . In short the same tired old mantras we heard under Blair for 10 long years.
I hope some people HAVE had positive experiences at the conference.I'll save my pennies till the autumn - when at least we might be able to rally some opposition and dissent .
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