Diary

Wednesday, 3rd October 2007

Iain Dale's Blackpool Conference Diary

Life as a blogger at a party conference can be weird. My blog has about 50,000 readers (nearly as many as The Spectator!) and all of them seemed to be in Blackpool. People find it odd when I say I’m actually quite shy, so I don’t always find it easy to react to people who tell me how wonderful they think my blog is. I mean, how would you react when someone says: ‘I think you’re an absolute legend!’ But in the blogosphere you make many enemies as well as new friends. You’re either too sycophantic or too disloyal, too shrill or too friendly. You’re too right-wing or not right-wing enough. There’s only black and white, no grey. Virtually every day I get called a fascist **** or worse. My parenthood is regularly called into question. So why do I do it? Because blogging is a liberating experience and it’s a way of saying what you want to say, when you want to say it, and without a media filter. Try it. You might like it.

A few weeks ago I had the bright idea of compiling a league table of the Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right. The Telegraph has been running the list all week, culminating with the Top 25 on the day David Cameron (the number one, natch) made his speech. A journalist rang me to ask why I was doing it. He wanted to know what was in it for me. ‘Making a lot of enemies, I should think,’ I replied. I spent the whole conference avoiding the half dozen shadow Cabinet members who didn’t make the cut, and ignoring the texts and emails of those who complained — in a good-natured way, of course — about their ranking. And you never know who’s behind you when you’re gossiping about the reasons so and so was number 62 or 69. Luckily Alan Duncan has a very well-developed sense of humour.

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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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