These Party Conferences: what's actually the point of them?

[Berni]

Everyone gets up on their hind legs and rattles off exactly the sort of crap you'd expect them to rattle off and then everyone claps. And this is for some reason considered worth televising?

It's utter ****.

[Ashberto]

Good business for hotels, I suppose.

['Neg]

[Dorset Gooner]

important issues facing our country. If that helps to keep him out then I'm all for them.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

I think that is what Norman Tebbitt said on a television programme last week.

The speeches and actual conference are the least important part of the week, it is the evening events and various soirees that matter.

[Luis Anaconda]

gets all the *******s on one place at the same time

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

I don't tend to watch programmes about the Conservative Party or politics as a general rule.

[pjlincs]

[Luis Anaconda]

[Classic Jorge]

Or at least for a few days of the year.

Having been to a few I found them intriguing. Good to see the whites of their eyes, as michael caine once said.

[redgunamo]

Colleagues need to meet up once in a while away from the formal working environment to breed and pro-create. Ideas, I mean, of course.

Silly televising the things though, I agree. What if the wife sees you.

[Ashberto]

:davidsteele:

[Luis Anaconda]

:davidsteele:

[Ashberto]

You've already got the MOTD studio moved oop norf. That should be more than enough national institutions for you.

[Classic Jorge]

In fairness, I think an english parliament is a fairly silly idea.

We should have regional assemblies, much more sensible.

[Ashberto]

getting lost in the pavillion coming out to bat.

[Ashberto]

[Ashberto]

Norman Tebbit. :cooper:

[Snin]

[Classic Jorge]

There's very little point in having a separate parliament for 52m people when we already have one for just over 60. It'd be a nice move to a more responsive and egalitarian federal model to have regions (5-10m people) devolved a bit.

Of course, the funny bit of this is all of the small government fundamentalists suddenly arguing for more government.

[Ashberto]

I don't support the English parliament either, and agree with you about the more-guvmint bit too.

If you don't want more bureaucracy, why call for more layers of government at regional level? We already have local government.

[Luis Anaconda]

[JohnnyPuma]

[Classic Jorge]

My advocation of federalism would be at the expense of silly vestigial tails like the lords and monarchy though. Not more government, just better government.

[Ashberto]

I'm not suggesting conflict-levels of division, but devolution does encourage separatism, as we have seen.

What sort of power were you imagining these regions to have?

[Luis Anaconda]

[Ashberto]

Mr Milosevic.

[Ashberto]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

13% expressing a desire for a republic.

Sounds as if getting rid of HMQ might be a little trickier than you're suggesting there, old chap.

[Ashberto]

I'm not saying we roll out the republic tomorrow.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Luis Anaconda]

And obviously Stuart Lee will play Ratko Mladic the Bosnian Serb military leader who is accused of war crimes

and add and add and add

[Classic Jorge]

[Snin]

[Snin]

[Ashberto]

I have found some of his stuff very funny.

[Snin]

up himself too...not a fav of mine

[Luis Anaconda]