This article was originally published in the
Transport Times
For many, it seems to be fair game to be critical of the party
conferences. Complaints are made about the take-over of the
conferences by professional campaigners, lobbyists and journalists.
But this misses the point of the conferences and underestimates
their value.
The party conferences represent one of the few times that the
parties come together in one place – councillors, members,
delegates, MPs, advisers etc.
The view of the conferences obtained by watching them on the TV
and that from actually being there, are often different. It was
easy to note the more financially sceptical line taken by Ed Balls
towards HS2 from his speech and the briefings given to the media
but what was clear from attending fringe meetings was that there
remains large support for the scheme. Issues such as greater local
control over rail and devolution were mentioned around the
conference hall and hotels time and again so
