At the weekend I packed my bag and headed to Manchester for the Conservative Party Conference, along with many others wondering what exactly it would be like. Smaller, yes - quieter, no. Now if you're sceptical about anything a party member says, probably best stop reading now - however my view is that whilst there was fewer people, arguably the discussion was better than ever.
One major theme of the conference was 'Thatcher 100' and there was certainly a number of great events and opportunities linked to that, which also presented some great opportunities for party leader Kemi Badenoch to make her pitch too. In fact, in retrospect I would say the conference in general was a well crafted stage for Kemi, who took advantage of them all. Along with many others, I certainly left feeling very much more positive than I had expected to.
On a personal level, conference was as busy as ever, with a number of panels I was invited to speak on. The LGA Conservative Group reception is always on a Sunday afternoon, and it was a privilege to be able to open the event and introduce Baroness Shepherd, who I have had the opportunity to get to know over the last year. She gave a powerful speech about the future, demonstrating why she remains a real legend within the party.
Whilst numbers were naturally smaller - we have both a smaller parliamentary and local government party - I felt the quality of the conference more than made up for this. Highlights for me included the Thatcher 100 reception on the Sunday evening, appearing with fellow party members on Radio 5 to talk about the conference, as well as the LGBT Conservatives disco on the Tuesday, all a reminder that you shouldn't always believe what the media says about politics!
