The party season

Apologies for it being so long to make a post, it's been a very busy time for me. Working hard, getting married and then a honeymoon.

Unfortunately, I missed the Lib Dem conference as I was still away. I did manage to catch Nick Clegg's speech, however, and he was trying to do the same as David Cameron last year - unfortunately I saw the autocue at the back of the conference hall.

The speech seemed to be fine, and secured his place as Lib Dem leader. Promising tax cuts is a great idea, although looks highly optimistic in the current economic turmoil. Especially as Vince Cable's plan for any bank in trouble is Nationalisation.

The Labour Party conference seemed less fevered than I expected, although I was not in the bars and meeting rooms afterwards. The speeches were not very exciting, although the happy chipmunk - Hazel Blears - made a good speech.

Gordon Brown did his best speech ever, and came up with the best line of the conference season - "No time for a novice". He still manages, though, to make me want to throw something at the TV screen when he tells some mis-truths. His whole little section on universal and women's suffrage was full of inaccuracies (being generous) or lies (being truthful).

I think he has secured his position for the time being, the financial situation seems to have given him a new narrative as the man of experience. The talk of 'change' on the steps of 10 Downing Street on becoming PM, must now be fully consigned to the dustbin - he is now the man of continuity.

The Conservative party conference has had to content with the backdrop of dire financial turmoil and this has made it difficult to be heard. Nevertheless, I believe the tone has been right - sober but sound, non-complacent but confident.

David Cameron's hastily written little speech on Tuesday was a masterstroke, he looked statesmanlike offering bipartisan co-operation. All that is pretty irrelevant, but ensuring 2 minutes on the daily news cycle after the bailout package was voted down by Congress was brilliant.

Today's speech by David Cameron was again excellent and fitted the mood of conference. It was on a par with last year's fantastic effort but against a completely different set of circumstances - showing that he catch the mood when necessary.

At the current moment the polls show that the Tory party lead is down to roughly 10 points, but as Mike Smithson says on the PoliticalBetting.com the Labour party always gets a 7% boost after conference. I do believe that within a week, the polls will be similar to those before the conference season - only changes by the economic turmoil will sustain through the polling period.

Let's see what happens next week.

Squiffy.