Waking into the Tory conference centre here in Birmingham cheers you up immensely. I am a fan of wartime and Soviet propaganda posters, and the Tories have mocked up a bunch of them but with capitalist slogans. “Big government = big problems” says one. Then some of Cameron’s top phrases, that there is “such a thing as society; it’s not the same thing as the state”. The only one which struck me as a little too authentic was one saying Social Responsibility (depicted on a balloon) which sounds one of those weird phrases Soviet governments tried to promote to try and make them mean something. Didn’t work then, won’t now. My favourite of the Tory crop depicts an oppressing hand with “Labour” on it, its thumb squeezing the words “telling people what to do since 1997”. Class.
It’s also striking how many lobbyists are here, giving away freebies. The Tories are indulging, having not seen such generosity for a almost two decades. It was hilarious in Manchester last week seeing Labour deserted by the lobbyists, having to buy their own drinks for the first time since 1994.
The stage is stunning. They have forked out for the same mammoth television screen backdrop that Sky News uses. Not even any late accreditation problems. From what little I have seen so far, I’d say it’s promising to be the best organised Tory conference I’ve been to. All we need now are some policies…
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