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This is a guest blog post by Tom Hawkins, Policy Executive for the PRCA
Party Conference season is always a surreal and anti-climactic time of the year. Politicians have the tough task of trying to perform the political equivalent of a magic trick. They must speak to two very different audiences at the same time, the conference hall full of ideological, partisan activists that help fund the party, and the watching middle ground of the electorate that is interested in politics but not in parties. To perform this trick politicians resort to overarching rhetoric rather than anything particularly substantive.
This year’s conference season has demonstrated this perfectly. At least last year saw Ed Miliband’s excellent outflanking of his more moderate brother with left-leaning policy proposals that saw him sneak the Labour leadership election. This year, his aim has been solely to demonstrate presentable leadership skills to the country whilst reminding the party faithful that they picked the right man. It is a similar story with the coalition leaders, who sympathised with their party’s respective heartland whilst emphasising the importance of stability and moderation in a two-party government.
The lack of substance has been exacerbated in the era of rapid reactions of 24-hour news and social media, where the slightest mishap is received in hysteria. The aim is therefore to avoid provocation entirely. (To this extent the clear winner of conference season is George Osborne who managed to escape from his speech with only the smallest of ripples of discontent). Thus policy proposals, good and bad, are at a complete minimum. Instead what the public observes is an overly orchestrated PR damage limitation exercise consisting of ultra-defensive leadership speeches: Ed Miliband made no mention of the Trade Unions that catapulted him to leadership, and found himself having to defend his take on good vs. bad capitalism the following morning. David Cameron had to change parts of his speech that suggested individuals should pay down their credit card debts before he had even taken the stage. Nick Clegg had to defend his time in government, and (still) explain why the Lib Dems had to join the coalition to begin with.
Between the three of them, policy proposals were almost non-existent. Where visible they were either opaque, non-committal or a mere extension of current policies.
Instead policy in conference season was given up to the party wings – not to be confused with the fringes – that for a brief moment had a platform to make an impact. As per usual, this passed with the usual harmless flag waving. Surprisingly, the most bizarre policy suggestions and PR errors were made by senior party members that got too excited in trying to please their activists. Most notable was Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Ivan Lewis’ nuanced remark that we should overturn centuries of history and have a register for journalists. The response from Miliband that the Glorious Revolution was not in vain was swift and ensured the damage was not lasting. Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister, Lynne Featherstone, decided the global financial crisis was purely the fault of men. This week the Tories managed to trump everyone as the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary proceeded to have a high profile ‘cat-spat’ over a trivial immigration case. The ensuing fallout was as typical as it was frenzied: “can’t trust Labour”, “typical Tories” etc. The Westminster Village, Twitter, and national journalists have all been up in arms, whilst the rest of the country seems rather less concerned. We have learnt very little.
David Cameron said “we are going to get Britain back to work”; Miliband spoke of “raising productivity, working together, helping firms to compete”; and Clegg claimed “we will do more for growth and for jobs”. All came without an explanation. Casual remarks concerning doing the right thing outweighs any unnecessary explication of long term solutions that can be critiqued.
Cameron’s pragmatic patriotism was the speech that connected best with the nation and simultaneously the conference hall. He also took the least risks. Miliband at least tried to set out a new political vision, but it could have been mistaken for either a Cameron or Clegg speech from a few years ago in many places. Clegg was reassuring but unimaginative.
It is clear that the party that comes out of conference season in the best position will be the one that was least memorable.
