Conference

PARTY conference season is upon us – with the main parties holding their annual gatherings through to early October.

Venues have varied over the years with seaside towns often featuring given the large volume of cheap accommodation after the summer season has run out of puff. The major cities figure too, especially those where the lines of electoral battle are deeply scarred.

These events can be occasionally exciting but too often lack real bite with all parties tending to heavily choreograph the main proceedings — leaving the action to the fringe.

Partly as a result, conference attendances have fallen, even if the expansionary deceit of television (a medium that visually over-represents numbers and space) makes these occasions appear larger than reality.

So do these conferences actually change the political weather? Do personalities and policy collide with sound and fury?

The answer is not as much as they used to. Yes, media coverage matters and there is a key opportunity with the leaders' speeches — to underline strengths and signal new energy and direction but modern party conferences are a far cry from the past — the 1990s when John Smith forced through 'one man one vote' to tame the unions.

Or the 1980s when Neil Kinnock squared up to Militant causing Eric Heffer to bowl off stage and when Maggie faced down the wets — 'the lady is not for turning'.

What tends to move policy and opinion nowadays is increasingly new media and on an issue by issue basis.

Well orchestrated email campaigns targeting MPs around the time of key votes has far greater effects than the ripples that fan out from party conference time.

Perhaps the answer is for the conferences of the future to become virtual events themselves — to embrace the immediacy and convenience of the click of a mouse.