Bournemouth welcomed its thousands of temporary Tory residents with glorious sunshine and gale force winds. The Mrs Prescott Promenade certainly had a few formally finely coiffed victims yesterday. Whilst the cold air blew down the seafront there was no lack of hot air at the bars and spirits are clearly up around the Highcliff. Yesterday, however was a story of the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and the currency was conference passes. Apparently due to higher security alerts, thousands of people have not got their obligatory passes and therefore the new top venue is the Pavilion car park where hundreds of party members are queuing at all hours in the hope that the Dorset constabulary will approve their application. Whilst the ‘have-nots’ (including MPs, MEPs, Diplomats, speakers etc) start the day aspiring just to get into the event, the ‘haves’ are enjoying a conference that definitely has a buzz about it.
I spent my evening (once I became a ‘have’) at the Highcliff fringe which was brimming with aspiring candidates like myself. Events of choice included a W2W (Women2Win) meeting with the Girl Guiding Association on the subject of equality. Among the speakers, Melissa Kite from the Sunday Telegraph gave her full support to all women short-lists and the necessity to see more women in Parliament particularly on the Tory benches. There was a sparkling Conservative Future (CF) reception and an excellent meeting in which the Editor, Tim Montgomerie, and Oliver Letwin gave their thoughts on Compassionate Conservatism - many meetings suffering from the missing ‘have not’ speakers and guests. Candidates and Association officers flocked to the main Candidates reception and everyone was trying to get the latest information on selections: What applications are in? Is there a favourite? Which seats in coming up soon? This is the big opportunity for seat intelligence and wooing officers.
This conference has an energy an optimism that I have never seen before – and that is coming across in every forum. The media is doing its best to try to find divisions and discomfort in party members but my overriding feeling after day one of the conference is that for the first time in well over a decade the Party feels good about itself... roll on the rest of the week.
Sounds like fun. I just wish I was a "have" - still waiting to join that club.
Posted by: Mike Rouse | October 02, 2006 at 12:28 PM
Hello there.
Could you tell me which hotels in Bournemouth house which political correspondents? Are there separate ones for tv / newspapers?
Thanks.
Posted by: Elizabeth | October 02, 2006 at 12:29 PM
Planning on doing a bit of journo-spotting? I think you'll still find a few of them at the Pavillion!
Posted by: Mike Rouse | October 02, 2006 at 12:42 PM
Nice article Hannah, sounds like delegates are in a very upbeat mood (once they become a have of course).
I hope everyone fortunate enough to be in Bournemouth this week has a wonderful conference. This is the first one I've missed in five years and I'm missing it very much.
Posted by: Graham D'Amiral | October 02, 2006 at 02:28 PM
Just spoken to prospective candidate friend of mine who is still a have not - I think she wants to end it all after two days of queing. Sounds like chaos down there.
Posted by: renny | October 02, 2006 at 03:21 PM
I guess that you missed the National Convention meeting then Hannah.
Posted by: Matt Davis | October 03, 2006 at 12:41 AM
Too right Matt
The real have nots are those who have not got onto the A List solely because they are white men.
There would have been little point in them turning up to the Candidates Reception.
Hannah is of course on the A List
Posted by: Klamm | October 06, 2006 at 05:09 PM