Monday, September 16, 2024
A quiet conference
The Guardian reports that low interest is challenging organisers of the Conservatives annual get-together, with business day tickets still not sold, speakers reluctant to engage and attenders dialling back their time:
The experience of losing power is a brutal business. The ministerial cars disappear, the armies of advisers disperse and the utterances of newly former ministers cease to dominate the airwaves. Now the Conservative party is suffering from another symptom of its dramatic ejection from office: a somewhat suppressed level of interest in its party conference, usually the jewel in the crown of the Tory calendar.
Figures involved in organising events and talks at the conference report it has been a struggle in the wake of the Conservatives’ historic defeat. Organisers are pushing back deadlines and offering to help chase reluctant speakers for fringe events, a source close to the party has told the Observer.
Unlike last year, the Conservatives are no longer offering their own dedicated streaming platform for those who wish to watch the fringe events live, which some regard as a sign of a lack of interest. Previously those interested in viewing the events had to obtain a pass. This year, the fringe will be less exclusive, with most talks simply going “straight to YouTube”.
One source, who wished to remain anonymous, added that many former senior Tories said they would not be attending this year. And while Labour’s “business day” tickets sold out in hours, with the great and the good of the corporate world keen to rub shoulders with the new government, the Tories are still trying to sell theirs – despite conference season starting this weekend with the Lib Dems in Brighton.
It’s not just Labour’s landslide victory that has fostered this lack of interest. The upcoming leadership contest has caused apprehension that internal party matters will dominate the conference, according to Jon McLeod, a partner at the strategic communications consultancy DRD Partnership. “I’ve been a lobbyist for 30 years,” he said. “I first went to the Tory conference in ’94. I’m not going this year – it’s the first time in 30 years I’ve not been.
“Not out of any mean-spiritedness – it’s partly because they’ve got the leadership parade and it’s difficult to work out materially what the candidates want.
“Businesses don’t feel very grateful to the Conservative party for the last five years of instability. There is not much appetite to hear four cats mewing.”
It seems you reap what you sew in politics.
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"There is not much appetite to hear four cats mewing.” I think that's the most brutal thing I have ever read about the Tory leadership contest.
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