As I said the other day, many people don't have the ability to take the whole three days out of their week to travel off somewhere and stay in a hotel. That doesn't mean though that they don't want to be able to have the opportunity to go. I would be interested to hear the views of the Labour and Lib Dem supporters who read this blog as well, because I'll readily admit I am assuming that the other two main parties don't do day passes as well. Can anyone confirm if that is the case? In fact, can any Labour member register for the conference or is it delegates from CLPs only?
6 comments:
The Lib Dems do day passes. Very reasonably priced too.
I agree there should be one-day passes, although thank goodness for the Freedom Zone at this year's conference. At least it allowed you and Devil's Kitchen to take part and watch some of the debate going on around Birmingham.
Although I agree with you in principle, if they did introduce day passes, then we would see full houses for the Leader's speech day, and cavernous empty spaces the rest of the week. Particularly if they continue the trend of 'taking it inland' - we would see a continued reduction of the little old ladies who come for a week by the sea, who would possibly only come for the whole week, but might not be able to given the demand on tickets for the last day. I'm not suggesting that Leaders' days would become mini Glastonburys, but it's not too much of a stretch to assume they'd be the most popular days.
It would be bad enough for the now (thankfully) popular Tories, can you imagine how the poor Lib Dems would feel - from what I can gather, they had to cordon off huge chunks of their space to make it seem less empty. Oh... and they don't exactly have a ticket-selling leader either!
That said... I write with no real knowledge on the subject - I've never been to a conference, as I can't afford to miss a week of work. I have an ex-pat Polish wife, and it's tricky enough to fit visits home and real holidays into one year's allowance already!
You know several of the speeches were over capacity, though? I've seen reports from people who couldn't get in to Osbourne's speech or (despite the bigger hall) the leader's speech. Even the overspill hall (with a video screen) was full.
I totally agree with you but it seems impractical.
It sounds like the old British Trotskyite "Democracy of the Committed", i.e. that in order to be heard you have to be more active and show more commitment. Actual democracy is the complete opposite and is supposed to prevent minority rule. In the case of the Conservatives, in the past this has simply meant an abundance of retirees at conference, but the principle is the same.
Dizzy,
I put your point to Teresa May at a Fringe Event on Tuesday. She agreed "a good idea", and added that starting conference on a Friday was also being considered. Maybe CCHQ are listening.
English Guy
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