Diary

6 October 2007

Iain Dale's Blackpool Conference Diary

Thank the Lord this will be the last time conference-goers have to endure the hellhole that calls itself Blackpool. The last time I stayed in a Blackpool hotel at a party conference was in the mid-1990s. I woke up at 2 a.m. on the first night covered in sweat. I hadn’t been indulging in any, er, nefarious activity and didn’t feel ill, but I eventually worked it out. The caring Blackpool hotel owner had thoughtfully put rubber incontinence sheets on the bed. Now I am sure some people would pay good money for that sort of thing, but I decided to check out the next morning. Each time I have gone to Blackpool since then I’ve stayed in the gloriously named Ribby Hall Holiday Village, a sort of modern-day Butlins without the red coats, located a few miles outside the town that even the locals dub Chav City. As a conference centre, the Winter Gardens remains stuck in the 1950s. As a blogger, an internet connection is a must for me at any conference venue. I rang the Winter Gardens to ask if they had wifi. I really don’t know why I bothered. I might as well have been asking for the availability of a nuclear physics lab. For the next few years the Tories are off to Birmingham and Manchester. I long for the day when Cardiff has enough hotel rooms to attract a conference of this size. It’s one of the most vibrant cities in Britain.

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M Singh

October 4th, 2007 11:29am Report this comment

Cardiff has a hell of a lot more hotel rooms than Blackpool.

Justin McKeating

October 4th, 2007 11:31am Report this comment

Here's an idea. If Blackpool is such a 'hellhole', why don't you get some of your Tory chums to do something about it? Blackpool has a Tory council after all. Or is it just a case of traditional Tory snobbery and showing off to your hangers-on in the face of a town going to the dogs on the watch of Tory councillors? Compassionate Conservatism indeed.

Mesna

October 4th, 2007 2:39pm Report this comment

Yeah that's right. Blackpool has only started going to the dogs since May 3rd. Nothing to do with the 25 years on Labour mis-rule before that then, eh Justin??

UK Daily Pundit

October 5th, 2007 1:16pm Report this comment

Iain, your party is hoping to win marginal seats in the "hellhole" of Blackpool. Boris Johnson style rhetoric won't help the Conservative cause one bit.

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