40 years on from the Grand Hotel, Brighton, another conference calls

Later today I shall be driving to Birmingham for the 2024 Conservative Party conference.

It’s 40 years since I attended my first party conference, and who can forget what happened at the 1984 Conservative conference in Brighton?

It’s something I’ll never forget because I was in the Grand Hotel two hours before the IRA bomb went off.

I left the hotel at 1.00am with a friend because we had to drive back to London to collect copies of the student magazine I was editing.

The latest issue had just been published and delivered to my flat in West Kensington and the plan was to return to Brighton in the morning and distribute copies to delegates as they entered the conference centre to listen to Margaret Thatcher’s speech, which was scheduled for 2.00pm.

We arrived back in London around 3.00am and slept until 10.00, oblivious to what was happening 60 miles away.

We then drove back to Brighton but it was only when we turned on the car radio that we heard the shocking news. (Five dead, 34 injured, many seriously.)

There were no rolling news channels or social media in those days, nor were there mobile phones to contact people at the scene of the devastation.

Anyway, we arrived in Brighton around one and headed straight for the conference centre where we took our seats and waited for Maggie to appear and give a typically forthright response to the bombers.

(Plans to hand out copies of the magazine were quietly abandoned because in the circumstances it didn’t seem appropriate.)

Looking back I don’t remember there being much if any security. There certainly wasn’t the secure zone that now embraces all the main party conference venues.

Instead we just wandered in and out of the main hotels and the conference centre, and I don’t remember ever being stopped or asked for ID.

That all changed after 1984, of course, but it was 20 years before my work took me back to party conference.

That was in 2004 when I attended the Conservative conference in Bournemouth, and since then I’ve gone to every Conservative conference plus a handful of Labour and Lib Dem conferences.

Back in 2004 fringe events were limited, as far as I can remember, to breakfast meetings, lunchtime events, and evening meetings or receptions.

Fringe meetings were not allowed to clash with the debates and speeches in the main hall, but after that ‘rule’ started to be flouted a trickle of morning and afternoon events quickly became a flood until all the main parties were forced to embrace the fringe.

(I like to take some credit for this, having co-founded the two-day Freedom Zone event that ran parallel to the main conference when it was launched at the Conservative conference in Birmingham in 2008.)

The popularity of fringe meetings has been both a curse and a blessing for the parties.

On one hand they can make money hiring out meeting rooms in the secure zone. On the other hand, the main hall is often half empty (or worse) for the ‘official’ programme which few people seem to care about.

The growth of the fringe has also seen a huge rise in events hosted or sponsored by NGOs and corporations.

Lobbyists now dominate party conferences in a way I don’t remember 40 years ago when party conferences were attended largely by party members.

Labour members used to have furious rows and debates about party policy. In contrast, ‘the blue rinse brigade’ (ie elderly Tories) came not to discuss anything as vulgar as policy but to catch up with members they hadn’t seen since the previous conference.

For them, just as it was for younger members, the annual party conference was primarily a social event, hence the Young Conservative Ball that used to kick-start the conference on Saturday night.

In truth, if it wasn’t for Forest I wouldn’t go to a single party conference. I’ve enjoyed many of the fringe events we’ve organised, and several have very special memories, but in general party conferences don’t appeal to me at all.

Bournemouth, which is no longer on the rota for the Labour or Conservative conference, is my favourite conference location, especially if the weather is good. (A sunny autumn day overlooking that sandy beach is hard to beat.)

But I don’t miss Blackpool, another place that’s no longer on the list, and while Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool have far better facilities - including modern conference centres and hotels - they leave me a bit cold (and wet).

In my experience the biggest change since 1984 is the disconnect between the conference and the host city.

Party conferences today take place in a bubble behind a security cordon, and if you are a resident of Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool or even Brighton you may be unaware that a conference is taking place at all.

In that regard party conferences reflect the increasing divide between politicians and the electorate, and it’s getting worse, not better.

Anyway, I’m in Birmingham to speak at a fringe meeting hosted by the TaxPayers’ Alliance on Tuesday morning.

The subject is ‘Lost Liberty: Why don’t the Conservatives trust people?’ and you’ll find us in the Think Tent marquee within the secure zone.

There’s a very good panel and I believe it will be streamed live for those not at conference. Details to follow.

See also: From Bournemouth to Blackpool, the best and worst party conference locations and Forest’s top ten conference events.