Liverpool is a long way from Plymouth. It takes many hours by train to get there and its accents can seem quite, quite different from those heard on the Barbican or in South Devon. Having successfully shunned the seaside resorts a few years ago, Labour’s urban conference theme continues in the home of the Fab Four. And it looks like being quite a conference with all the thrills and spills we have come to expect from the ever-changing political landscape.
One year after Ed Miliband’s narrow victory over his brother, the media will be focusing on the younger Miliband’s first year at the helm of Labour. The delegates from Plymouth and across the country will be concentrating on the issues.
There is never one conference that takes place at Labour, there are normally three.
Firstly, the media’s conference. Spun and highly dramatized this is the conference that is reported on the nightly news and tweeted about by the army of journalists who are leaving their comfortable West London postcodes and heading up north. Focusing often more on gossip, intrigue and set piece speeches than the actual debates on the conference floor, the journalists will be critical to whether the conference is a success or not – at least whether we are told it was a success or not.
The second is the member’s conference. This is the only chance in the entire year for Labour’s representatives and constituency party delegates (look out for Cllr Chaz Singh representing Plymouth) have to get together to discuss the issues of the day. This conference is practical, personal and absolutely essential to the proper functioning of policy and powering the party. It’s also the membership’s chance to quiz those MPs who represent the party in Parliament and the opportunity to vote on where the party is heading next.
The third conference is that of the commercial visitors and lobbyists. Party conferences are an opportunity to meet those who organizations, large and small, commercial and charitable seek to influence. This year will be no different. Regular readers of PRSD will know I work in the commercial sector so I’ll be there this week with my work hat on – well, for some of the time at least!
How much of each conference you will hear will depend on who you are listening to and who you are following.
Plymouth Labour is well represented up north this week and the single best place to find out what our delegates and local members are up to is on Twitter. So, my following recommendations for getting as close to the action as possible this week would be to follow:
Cllr Tudor Evans, leader of Plymouth’s Labour Group: http://twitter.com/CouncillorTudor
Cllr Chaz Singh, Labour councillor for Drake Ward and Plymouth’s voting delegate at conference :http://twitter.com/PlymouthChaz
Michael Sparling, former PPC in SE Cornwall and the delegate from West Devon: http://twitter.com/MichaelSparling
And perhaps, in my spare time, me http://twitter.com/LukePollard
You can follow tweets from the conference on the #lab11 hashtag too.
The Plymouth Labour twitter account (http://twitter.com/PlymouthLabour) will also be retweeting the best from our delegates in Liverpool and also – and perhaps most importantly – also saying what the members and councillors working hard in Plymouth for Plymouth are up to as well.
(image: 
Some rights reserved by Duncan~)
Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!
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