Let’s face it, no one ever told delegates: ‘Go back to your bedrooms and prepare for government’
I can’t have been the only veteran of the British party conference circuit to have breathed a sigh of relief at being spared an increasingly unrewarding annual trek this autumn. Now that we are on the verge of this country’s first ever virtual conference season, however, I’m not so sure this was right.
The first such gathering of 2020 began this week with the Trades Union Congress. Next Sunday, Labour begins three days of online debates and speeches. In the following two weeks, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives will follow suit. In October the SNP is expected to complete the season. In the whole history of British party politics, there will have been few gatherings odder than these.
