I HAVE MANY MEMORIES FROM THE LABOUR PARTY conferences I attended some three decades ago. Certainly, when you walk in on Tony Benn in his pyjamas you never forget it (we’ll come to that in a minute). As a researcher at the Labour-supporting Fabian Society think tank in the 1990s, the yearly visit to Blackpool, Brighton or Bournemouth was always inked firmly into the diary. Now it’s Liverpool (this year and last) or Manchester (Brighton last hosted Labour in 2019). But I’ve not been to Labour conference since 2004, and have no intention of ever going again if I can help it.
Nothing better illustrates how different Labour conference is today than the fact that Bournemouth hasn’t hosted Labour since 2007 and Blackpool last saw the party in 2002. Decamping to the seaside for five days of plotting, meeting, voting, cavorting, drinking, and — rarely — eating wasn’t just about taking in the sea air, although the bracing
