Conservative Conference Diary 2015 - as the conference is about to begin

Setting off at 7.15 am this morning to drive down to Manchester.

I gather that there will be even more demonstrators than usual - not that we have not had to accept and get used to a fair amount of that over the years, even when not in government - and there was some material about this on social media yesterday before the conference has even started.

Ralph Buckle who attends all the party conferences on behalf of Dodds and has been to five each of the Conservative, Labour and Lib/Dem gatherings, three UKIP and a Green conference tweeted his concern at the level of vitriol and hate shown by protesters outside the Conservative conference. A couple of years ago he saw a protestor shouting "Tory Scum" at people going into the hall where the Conservative conference had not yet started. He pointed out to the gentleman that the delegates had not arrived yet and the people he was shouting this at were mostly minimum-wage cleaners, caterers, stage assemblers and the like. That time the protestor had the decency to look ashen faced.

This year the Ralph tried again, making the same point yesterday to people who did not appear to realise that the conference did not start until today, the delegates were not in Manchester yet and they were shouting "Tory Scum" at cleaners, caterers, etc.

This lot had even less cerebral capacity than the gentleman two years ago: they told Ralph that he was full of an unpleasant substance, and added that they could "spot a Tory a mile off" with a wave at a random passer-by wearing a suit.

A friend of mine who the lefties did correctly identify as a Tory (not sure what he was wearing) and who was in Manchester because he lives there tweeted that he had been told to "Go Home" by people with Southern accents.

I don't think any open minded person could dispute that there have always been clever people and fools in every part of the political spectrum. Both right and left have at various times had the intellectual ascendancy. 

In one period when the left was less intellectually bankrupt than it is today, John Stuart Mill, one of the cleverest human beings who ever lived, said in a debate

"I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative."

I don't think the left has the kind of intellectual ascendancy today which made such an opinion so obvious and undeniable to him. I wish John Stuart Mill were alive today as I would love to be able to show him the demonstrators outside the Conservative conference and ask if he is quite so sure: it would be fascinating to hear his response.

Comments

Jim said…
Its either a very dull conference, or you forgot to pack the laptop charger again :D

sorry, you know when you just can't resist....
Chris Whiteside said…
Quite the opposite, it's not been a dull conference at all, I've been dashing between so many things that I've not had time to update the blog!

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