Goodbye Michael Howard

I'm now back in Salisbury after three weeks away from home and I'm shattered.  Until last night I hadn't had more than four hours' sleep for a week.  There was so much to see, hear and discuss at this year's Blackpool conference.  It was, of course, the first conference I've ever been to where my opinion actually mattered.  The conference would still have been interesting if members had had their vote taken away from them but many of the most important meetings would have taken place in private rooms with candidates wooing (or arm-twisting) their parliamentary colleagues.  The experience of the last week will ensure that any future attempts to steal our vote will be met with still greater resistance.  At Blackpool 2005 members tasted their democratic power and it tasted good. 

Today's Telegraph gave Michael Howard the credit for the week's events:

"He had been criticised for leaving the party effectively rudderless over the summer. But the strategy of offering all the leadership contenders a chance to set out their stalls had transformed the contest and exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the main candidates."

That is partly true but a three or four month contest would probably have achieved the same result - with a special party conference taking place at the midway-point of such a period.  Michael Howard's attempt to disenfranchise members has added several months to the process and created uncertainty for the Party Treasurers who have struggled to keep the party afloat over this period.

Michael Howard has now resigned and, yesterday, he gave a dignified farewell speech.  His "I am going to announce who I want to be the next Leader of the Opposition' joke was the best of conference.

Mr Howard may have been an unsuccessful Tory leader but he was a brilliant Home Secretary and his lasting legacy will be the tough approach to crime and prison that Labour have (unevenly) maintained ever since.

Comments

[Jonathan Sheppard]

I think MH did a good job in difficult times.

He openly admitted it wasn't good enough and I found conference speech extremely dignifiedand and just what was needed to make you proud to be a Conservative!