Tory Party Conference Day I

The Leadership race is all the talk of conference. I went along to lunchtime drinks with Conservative Future (formerly Young Conservatives) and David Davis popped in also. A young corporate tax lawyer, Zoe Aylward, to whom I had been chatting then took off her jacket to display the tee-shirt below she was wearing and the media went wild wanting photos. I grabbed a couple also.

It was very clever marketing, and pictures of Zoe have appeared in at least four daily newspapers, plus on TV. Mind you I’ve been in background shots on the BBC twice also!

Over 10,000 people attend the conference in total, including police. There are literally hundreds of Police here and all roads near the conference hall and the main hotel are blocked off. Photo IDs are compulsory, plus metal detectors everywhere.

Easy to think this is just a reaction to 9/11 and 7/7 but when one recalls that this very conference was blown up by the IRA in the 1980s, then there are good grounds to be cautious.

A photo of the conference hall before it started. It really is large. The international guests have a private room and stand up in the balconies which is very comfortable. High Commissioner Jonathan Hunt was there and we nodded to each other. No point in making small talk, after he tried to get me sacked when I still worked at Parliament 🙂

The social side has lived up to its billing. Made six events yesterday: