Once upon a time, it was the easiest thing on earth to read what the press calls ‘the mood of conference’.
Birmingham
Once upon a time, it was the easiest thing on earth to read what the press calls ‘the mood of conference’. The Conservative party was a great tribe, authentically representing large swaths of British life. It was not very political, so on the rare occasions when it expressed real anxiety about something, you could tell it was serious. Political parties of this sort no longer exist and cannot be revived. Most people have better things to do. Party politics has undergone ‘producer capture’. The Conservative conference is therefore part media event put on by the leadership, and part surprisingly impressive gathering of experts, councillors, charities, lobby groups, companies, and now, Liberal Democratish think tanks too, all of whom actually know and care about policy (a subject which, in the old days, was never discussed).
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