'This year was pure celebration and congratulations which is understandable, if not riveting'

The Liberal Democrat Conference is always bracketed between three cheerful events. The first night begins with a rally. Being old and cynical I’m not good at being rallied, preferring the challenge of argument, so I miss this and go out to dinner.

The last night of conference is the Glee Club. It began decades ago when delegates would start singing political songs in the bar, including the one about Harry Pollitt going to heaven.

We were thrown out of the Grand Hotel in the 1980s. The NEC of the Labour Party had arrived early for their conference. They did not join us in the bar but complained to the hotel about the noise.

Ever since, our organisers have booked a large room for the event which begins at 10.00pm and goes on into the early morning.

We sing from the Liberator Songbook which grows every year and now has over 100 songs all by well-known tunes but with our own words. Thus ‘Climb Every Mountain’ from the Sound of Music has become “Climb every staircase, try every door, canvass every voter ‘till you find one more.

Some of the songs date back to Lloyd George (The Land: “Why should we be beggars with the ballot in our hand ? God made the land for the people”). Some reflect more modern developments like Paddy Ashdown’s bromance with Tony Blair, sung to the tune of Bye Bye American Pie with some rather rude advice to Blair. There’s even one about David Cameron’s early relationship with a pig.

The third big event is of course the one the media notice: the Leader’s Speech. Leaders’ abilities as orators vary (to put it politely) but they have a lot of help. Big modern autocues give the impression that every word has just sprung from the leader’s brains (they vary too).

This year was pure celebration and congratulations which is understandable, if not riveting, but with no serious look forward.

My concern is the next five years. Labour and Liberal Democrats have played the First Past the Post game well and got rid of the worst government in my life, but Labour only got a third of the votes and the LibDem vote was smaller than Reform’s. There are millions of people still alienated from our establishment and vulnerable to poison from Reform and others. I wish I could report this conference addressed the challenge.

Separately, may I plug my own fringe meeting on Housing which, to my delight, the BBC wrote up as “Nimbys vs Yimbys”?

Image credit: Liberal Democrats – Creative Commons

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