Party conferences past and present

I am in Birmingham for the Conservative party conference.

Older readers may want to look away now because I am about to embark on a quick nostalgia fest, some of which you may have read before.

The first party conference I ever attended was the Conservative conference in Brighton in 1984. The year may give you a clue as to what happened next.

To cut a long story short, I drove down from London for the penultimate day and spent the last few hours in the bar at the Grand Hotel. At 1.00am I left and drove back to London with a friend.

I was editing a national student magazine at the time and the plan was to return to Brighton in the morning with copies of the latest issue, hot off the press.

However, because we didn't get back to London until three o'clock we overslept, missed the big breaking news, and were driving back to Brighton in blissful ignorance when we heard, on the radio, that an IRA bomb had exploded in the middle of the night, killing and maiming a number of people and destroying a substantial part of the building where we had been drinking just a few hours earlier.

Even then security was so light that we were able to enter the conference hall and see Mrs Thatcher give her famous speech.

Fast forward 20 years:

2004
With the Labour government threatening to ban smoking in public places, Forest had launched a campaign called 'Fight the Ban: Fight for Choice'. The campaign attracted the attention of Health Secretary John Reid and a few days before the Labour conference Forest chairman Lord Harris and I had a meeting in Whitehall with Reid and his advisors.

A few months earlier we had published an essay by musician Joe Jackson. It was called The Smoking Issue and it prompted the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) to invite Joe to share a platform with Reid at a well-attended fringe meeting in Brighton. I sat in the audience as Joe argued against further restrictions on smoking. Afterwards he told me he had given Reid a copy of The Smoking Issue.

I like to think that we were partly responsible for Reid's belief that there was no "overwhelming" public demand for a smoking ban in pubs. Unfortunately, as we now know, a comprehensive ban was only delayed.

2005
Following the 2005 General Election, and with Patricia Hewitt having replaced John Reid as Secretary of State for Health, we invited Joe back to Brighton to take part in another Labour fringe event, this time organised by Forest.

We booked a small room off the main lobby in the Metropole Hotel (inside the secure area). We invited several friends of Forest including Claire Fox (Institute of Ideas), Daily Mirror columnist Sue Carroll (who sadly died last year), Sue Brealey, co-author of The Joy of Smoking, and David Hockney.

Hockney's presence wasn't confirmed until 48 hours before the event but the call that told us he was coming set off a chain reaction that resulted in the best day of my working life.

You can read what happened here. I still laugh whenever I think about it.

2006
In terms of publicity, I doubt that Forest will ever beat Hockney's appearance in Brighton. That was a one-off, a well-managed (if I say so myself) fluke.

By September 2006 MPs had already voted to ban smoking in public places so as far as politicians and the media were concerned the ban was already yesterday's news. Instead of organising an event that was exclusively about the smoking ban, we therefore adopted a more general theme, 'Politics and Prohibition'.

At the Conservative conference in Bournemouth we hired the ballroom at the Royal Bath Hotel. We dressed it to resemble a Chicago speakeasy, booked a jazz band, and hired four actors whose principal role was to dress up as policemen and stage a mock raid with sirens and blue flashing lights.

This little scene was to culminate in the 'arrest' of a speaker who was charged with "inciting people to enjoy themselves". Having spent more than an hour rehearsing, it went even better than planned. The actors finished with a song and dance routine and the event ended with 400 guests singing 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life'. People still talk about it, even today.

2007
Returning to Bournemouth for the Labour conference we attempted a similar albeit smaller event. We hired the same actors (dressed this time as Mary Poppins' style nannies) but it didn't really work.

The main problem was the smoking ban which had been introduced a few months earlier. We couldn't use the Royal Bath ballroom because it was too far to walk to the outdoor smoking area. Instead we booked the lounge bar that overlooked the garden. Of the 100 or so people who turned up, more than half spent the evening in the garden, smoking. On reflection we should have had a barbecue outside!

At the Conservative conference in Blackpool we stuck to a more traditional drinks reception (speakers included Roger Helmer MEP and "rebel publican" Hamish Howitt), dressing the room with balloons and other paraphernalia. The smoking ban was a problem here too but we hired a room with a long outdoor balcony where people could light up and still feel part of the main event.

It was clear, though, that the days of large, smoker-friendly events at party conferences were possibly behind us.

2008
Forest's first stab at a Lib Dem fringe event was also my first experience of a Lib Dem conference, and I rather liked it. We were in Bournemouth (my favourite conference venue) and the biggest attraction was the lack of security. We co-hosted a panel discussion with Liberal Vision entitled 'How liberal are the Liberal Democrats?' and I was amazed at how we could walk in and out of the main conference hotel with no-one, least of all the police, taking any notice whatsoever.

As for Labour, why did we bother? One year after the introduction of the smoking ban in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Forest hosted a fringe event in Manchester that was intended to highlight the impact of the ban. Mysteriously, the event failed to appear in the conference brochure and we were severely restricted when it came to distributing flyers promoting the event. As for the event itself, I counted twelve people in the audience.

We fared rather better at the Conservative conference in Birmingham where we launched and co-hosted the inaugural Freedom Zone. Sessions that we were directly responsible for included An Audience with the Rt Hon David Davis MP (interviewer Iain Dale), Freedom and the Internet (panel discussion with the likes of Guido Fawkes and Nadine Dorries MP), You Can’t Do That! The Anti-Social Regulation of Public Space (another panel discussion), Taking Liberties (a "political chat show" featuring Claire Fox, Mark Littlewood and the Guardian's Michael White), Libertarian Paternalism and the Nanny State (panel discussion with ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie and the Adam Smith Institute's Eamonn Butler), and Tories Got Talent! (a political talent show). We also hosted a Cigarettes and Civil Liberties champagne reception.

Curiously our pivotal role in this popular annual event has been airbrushed from history. Today all that remains of Forest's involvement is thefreedomzone.info domain name and website (which we own) and the copyright for the 2008 logo, which we commissioned and designed and some considered too metrosexual. (I liked it.) And that's all I'll say on the matter!

2009
Having acquired a taste for Lib Dem events we returned to Bournemouth for the party's 2009 conference. Once again we co-hosted a panel discussion with Liberal Vision.

The following week we were in Brighton at the Labour conference. This time we abandoned the idea of an event in favour of an ad van promoting the message: '52 pubs are closing every week'. We also handed out beer mats urging the government to 'Amend the smoking ban'. Delegates appeared either unconcerned or disinterested.

At the Conservative conference in Manchester we organised two events, a panel discussion that invited answers to the question 'Will a Conservative government tackle the bully state?' and a relatively modest party in a local wine bar.

2010
It's odd but the events I remember most clearly took place six or seven years ago. I had to look up what we did two years ago.

With a new Tory-led Coalition in government, we hosted two events at the Conservative conference in Birmingham. The first featured Claire Fox, Paul Staines (Guido Fawkes), Alex Deane (Big Brother Watch) and Philip Davies MP but I have no idea what we discussed.

The second event was our traditional drinks party. We called it The Great British Pub Party. We hired a (very expensive) band, invited two MPs (David Nuttall and Brian Binley) to speak, but the effect of the smoking ban intervened yet again because at least two-thirds of our guests chose to stand outside where they could smoke and drink. Band and speakers were great but how many people were listening I couldn't say.

Watch David Nuttall at Forest's Great British Pub Party.

2011
Our return to the Labour conference was a great success. We booked the famous Cavern Club, hired a Beatles tribute band, and invited the Clubs and Institute Union (CIU) to join us. In terms of numbers it was our most successful Labour event ever and on his way out Ed Miliband's PPS told us, "That was the best event at the Labour conference". (I don't think he knew it was a Forest event!)

At the Conservative conference in Manchester we tried something very different, and almost pulled it off. Stand Up for Liberty! took place at the Comedy Store and featured a drinks reception follow by an hour of stand up comedy featuring three comedians chosen (by the Comedy Store) for their libertarian leanings.

There were several walk-outs (the air was thick with expletives) but afterwards we were congratulated for our "bravery" in hosting such an event. One guest rushed to Twitter to claim it was "the best fringe event of the last 10 years". Another tweeted: "Forest at Comedy Store is possibly the best ever in my 14 years at conference".

And so to 2012. We gave the Lib Dems and Labour a miss this year, choosing instead to organise two events at the Conservative conference in Birmingham. Report to follow.

Comments

[Richard Johnson]

Hi Simon

An interesting insight into your past party conference events. Great read. Thanks

Regards
Richard