Society

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The tide is turning

Ben Brogan’s blog makes available to the punter the kind of lobby corridor gossip which I’d have given my right arm to be privy to when I was a press gallery minnow. He’s one of the best informed in the place – so when he rules out an autumn election, it’s significant. His rationale makes perfect sense to me. Yes, Brown would take some stick for bottling it, but this won’t have much traction outside the Westminster village and the whole affair will be forgotten by Christmas. Plus his aides want to get stuck into the Tory non dom tax proposal (I agree that the figures don’t stack up, not

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

From the White Cliffs of Dover to the Tweed (But No Further)?

Yes, I’d noticed this part of Cameron’s speech too: And those changes have brought us success, in local elections we have taken Plymouth, we have taken Lincoln, we took Chester, we took the council right here in Blackpool and as William reminded us in that great speech on Sunday we are back in the North of England, a force to be reckoned with in every part of our country. Daniel Larison raises an eyebrow and asks: Except Scotland.  Or maybe this was an intentional oversight? My sense is that it was an unintentional slip. It’s true that neither Scotland nor the Union were mentioned in Cameron’s speech but that’s understandable

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Bart goes to J-School

I’ve written before that I think the wailing and gnashing of teeth over Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of the Wall Street Journal is, like, way overblown. Still, via James Fallows, you gotta laugh at this still from the most recent episode of The Simpsons:

Liz Anderson

Torn about the ending

ITV’s three-parter Torn came to an end last night. This drama by Chris Lang about an abducted child was one of the most gripping television plays I have seen for ages. Holly Aird, playing the child’s mother, was terrific, as were all the cast. More, please. Note to Radio Times: don’t give away the ending in your blurb next time.

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Sen. Strangemove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obama

Marc Ambinder says Obama’s foreign policy speech today demonstrates just how the campaign believes it is going to challenge the way Washington does these things. The headline announcement may beObama’s desire for a nuclear-free world which is, yes, something that has been gaining traction in foreign policy circles for some time and also the sort of optimistic “transformational” (if we are still allowed to use that word?) policy Obama likes to think typifies his campaign. Barring a miracle of course, it’s also not going to happen. The Obama campaign says these talking points demonstrate just how their candidate would “challenge Washington’s conventional thinking” by: 1. Ending the war in Iraq

Nadine Dorries

David is ready

David looked so smart when he walked onto the stage with his hair slicked back, I thought he was going to break into a verse of Mack the Knife. He was the antithesis to Brown. Brown was big on spin, David huge on substance. Brown was stale and re-hashed, David fresh and new. He went into detail about the policies we would put in place to deliver a strong society and reverse the rapidly escalating decline we all witness when we hear about a teenager who has just been shot in the neck on a middle class housing estate. Tax breaks for marriage, welfare to work which will actually work

Tamzin Lightwater

Goodbye Blackpool, hello Number Ten

I’ve never been so happy! What a speech! What a leader!!! I’ve already started a Facebook group entitled: “Does anyone not want to vote for Dave?” When he whispered “I love you, babe” to Sam through the live mic, that we “accidentally” left on, it was just the best moment ever. It’s so exciting to think that in a month’s time I will be moving my Pony Club desk tidy into Number Ten – who would have thought it?

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Hit and Run

Cameron has just given the speech of his life, and celebrated by wasting no time getting out of Blackpool. Like me, he took a cab out of the conference straight after the speech and headed for Preston. He’s standing on platform six, smiling broadly, with Sam beside him. His aides are huddled ten feet away, giving him space. He’s just pulled this off, and I suspect he knows it.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The atmospherics

I’ve never felt an atmosphere quite like this in a party conference. The press pack is silent, waiting for Cameron to come on. Its like we’re waiting for a tightrope act with no safety net where the artist could triumph, or perish. Anyway, so much for the promised 2.00pm start. And in wallks Cameron, as promised with no podium and no autocue. Notes left on a desk, there for emergencies. No one can deny the man’s got balls.

Nadine Dorries

Not the way to warm up an audience

Standing in the press gallery waiting to go into the 5 Live bubble. Just finished BBC, Anglia and Sky. The BBC make up woman has made me look like the cookie monster!   Conservative conference goers are creatures of habit. They like to go into the auditorium in the morning, put their towel on a seat and then come back later for the leaders speech. Not allowed this year it seems. Everyone has been chucked out of the auditorium and made to queue outside to re-enter. The queue is twice round the Winter Gardens and it is a queue of very unhappy people. This is not a good start! Nadine

Nadine Dorries

The Night Before

We were finally served our dinner at 10.30 last night. Thank goodness I was with the Countryside Alliance who are good fun and tolerant. It was then onto the News International reception, which is the gossip reception of the conference and the only one it is impossible to get into unless you have been invited. It was here the conference speech whispers took flight:  fascinating to watch the networking in action. One person I was with was absolutely desperate beyond the realms of normal behaviour to drop a word in Fraser Nelson’s ear, and he did! Staggered home and into bed at midnight, wiped out. Blackberry wakes me at 1.15

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Bye, bye Blackpool

The Tories don’t like to be beside the seaside. Or, more specifically, I’m assured this is the last time they will choose a coastal resort for their conference;  which means that–God willing–this will be the last time I see Blackpool. A colleague is already in bed with food poisoning. I have heard three separate stories about people finding blood stains in their hotel. Bring on Manchester…..

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

How do you solve a problem like… Liliana?

Intro of the Day: A convent in Italy is being shut down after a fight between its last three remaining nuns. So badly did relations deteriorate between the sisters of Santa Clara in Bari that the Mother Superior ended up in hospital with scratches to her face. Read the rest here.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Unbearable Melancholy of Ping Pong

There’s a delightful piece by Howard Jacobsen in the latest edition of The New Republic in which the author mourns the sad decline of table tennis. I don’t know why the magazine hasn’t promoted it more. The problem, you see, is the sponge bat. It has changed everything, and not, you will be unsurprised to discover for the better. Sponge ushered in the era of Asian supremacy, thanks in no small part to an athletic revolution that, well, changed the game forever… The single exception to Asian dominance, provided by Sweden, is only to be explained, I think, by that aspect of table tennis which no technology has ever been

Nadine Dorries

The quiet man roars

I am in the Hilton at a dinner hosted by the Countryside Alliance. There is someone I know on almost every table in the restaurant. Everyone is talking about the speech Iain gave tonight and absolutely everyone is talking about how the tears flooded their eyes and the hairs on the back of their neck rose. There is a lady on my table who is in tears now—she has said that her hands are still hurting from clapping and the only reason people sat down was because Iain began to look embarrassed by the length of his standing ovation. The gist of what made everyone cry was the very typical

George Osborne

All politics is local

I’ve just been speaking to over hundred business people who have come up to Blackpool for our Corporate Day. I spoke alongside Miles Templeman, Director General of the Institute of Directors. Richard Lambert of the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, and Federation of Small Business were also there in force. The event was just part of an action packed day of policy discussions and seminars organised by our business relations operation. We’ve done an enormous amount of work over the year, engaging with small and large businesses, up and down the country, and across every sector. We had record attendance, and the event was oversubscribed. My morning was a

Nadine Dorries

Told you so

I have tried so hard all day. I have kept myself distracted. Fully immersed in meetings and preparing for my fringe tonight. I forced myself not to look at the comment section on my blog – and then it happened, someone noticed and now I just can’t help myself. Here goes – I told you so. I said weeks ago on my own blog and yesterday on this one that Brown would  announce a withdrawal of troops  and use emotive language with words like ‘our boys’ to do so, as a pre election stunt to rain on our parade. And that’s just what it is, a cheap political stunt; as

Tamzin Lightwater

Tamzin’s Blackpool latest

So exciting. Was at secret meeting with Dave last night when he told us Gordon was going to call the election on Friday, or possibly Monday. Or, possibly not for a while. But probably quite soon. Atmosphere is electric. Policy count 173 and rising. Got a bit squiffy at the north west regional development agency bash but doing best to obey our iron discipline “low alcohol” rule. We were going to go for no alcohol in run up to election but Jed thought that made us seem a bit puritanical. Best if we’re all seen getting a bit drunk, so we can connect with People Out There. Anyway, if you

Nadine Dorries

Will Brown dare not go to the country?

Bumped into Baroness Peta Buscombe at the bar in the Imperial Hotel last night – Peta is the CEO of the Advertising Association. She told me that last week she had attended the Labour party conference, for business purposes only I hasten to add. I asked her how it had compared to our own conference. “No where near the number of delegates” she said.”No real activists as such, a very corporate affair, focused, driven and very smart – so glad I wore my Armani” Priceless! I am about to take her to my friends on a local council estate for a cup of tea. They will love her and she