The conference season is almost upon us.
Actually it began with the Greens but I wasn't paying attention.
Labour are in Manchester this year (September 21-24) but Forest won't be going. The last time we organised an event at a Labour conference in Manchester the party omitted our fringe listing and officials stopped us from distributing leaflets to delegates inside the secure area so the event was impossible to promote and hardly anyone turned up.
Instead we're saving our pennies and going to Doncaster for the Ukip conference (September 25-27), which should be fun. We've booked a stand in the exhibition area and will be handing out leaflets to promote 'Last Chance Saloon', the latest phase of the Hands Off Our Packs campaign which we are launching next week.
From Doncaster we're going straight to Birmingham for the Tory conference where we're organising two events.
The first, Stand Up For Liberty with Conservatives for Liberty, is on Sunday September 28 at 21:30 in the Hyatt Hotel. It's a bit different from your ordinary conference event because in addition to free drinks plus guest speaker (journalist James Delingpole) we'll be featuring a new Forest video, 'The Freedom Cage', followed by 30 minutes of stand up comedy.
The second event, Last Chance Saloon, is on Monday September 29 at the same time. Venue is the IEA/TPA ThinkTent outside the ICC but within the secure area. It's a drinks reception with a Wild West theme – hence the food (barbecue chicken wings, burgers and ribs) and drink (margaritas, whisky sours, bottles of Budweiser and (alcoholic) ginger ale.
If you're going to Birmingham and would like to join us email events@forestonline.org for an invitation.
Unusually the Lib Dem conference follows the Tory conference this year. For the second year in a row they're off to Glasgow.
I hear it was pretty depressing last year. Not only were delegates rattling around the enormous SECC but the weather was miserable.
I like Glasgow but there's nothing more miserable than a wet Wednesday on the banks of the Clyde.
So, no, I won't be going. I'll be somewhere else. Watch this space.