Already I have heard some excellent speeches.  Peter Mandelson has called David Cameron a 'flibbettygibbet', which is, I guess, not the language of a man hankering after a continued public role under a Conservative administration.  David Miliband talked cogently about Labour's success coming from a fight against British inertia, but that Labour could also become captured by its own conservatism.Liam Byrne has impressed - with bold (and bald) promises to reform party structures. 

As I sat in the Progress Rally I realised that the one element missing from the discussion was the possibility of defeat, but then perhaps this whole meeting was about defeat, and the deadly aftermath, but no-one could bring themselves to give that prospect voice.  Oona King had a go, but even after her attempt Jack Straw managed a rallying cry about winning and winning well.

Labour wants to win and the Milibands, Byrnes and Denhams of this world still make those on the left sit up and listen, but the country isn't hearing it.  The question this week is, for me, about whether Labour can turn its face to the gravest political likelihood, or continue to stare beyond it into an alternate future.  It's not really good enough for me to say that, I know - too easy, and what are my solutions? I don't know - but somehow without that element of levelling with each other and the party the conversation seems inauthentic.

I'm right in the middle of organising a couple of conference fringes this year.  Not, I will admit, anywhere near the 32 (32!!) being organised by the redoubtable Claire Coulier at Demos, or the seriously high number being run and chaired by Ian Mulheirn at the SMF.  Nope.  Just two events.  Although...

These events are a bit different.  There was quite a bit of Twitter chat at each conference last year, from arch-tweeters like @lukepollard and @timesjoanna, as well as from our own @partyconference feed.   This year we will be looking at a different order of social media useage at conference and I suspect these channels will also shape the way the General Election campaign plays out.  More on that anon.

This year we're running, together with the good people at Channel 4 News, what we're calling a 'twinge', or Twitter fringe.  Anyone who uses Twitter regularly will know that, when you're at a conference and lots of people are tweeting, a second conference emerges in the air above the first.  What we wanted to do was to capture those tweets publicly so that the Twitter channel could be as much a part of the debate as questions and comments from the floor.  Wolfstar's @stuartbruce has been using this kind of technique for yonks and is, frankly, the grandaddy of the Twitterwall, but we wanted to take the idea and bring it to party conference.

If you're around during the conference season, do pop in and cross-question our line up. If you're not about and you fancy getting involved just tweet a question using the #twinge hashtag and the miracle of Twitter will do the rest.

 
Every year people say, “Ah well it’ll be quieter in August.”  Where does this myth that PA people sit around playing Freecell for the summer come from?  I decided to go for a bit of a blogectomy over the summer because silly season banter does my head in. Although politically at least, with the almost relentless focus on defence policy and Afghanistan, this seems to have been one of the straightest summers I can remember.

Party conference looms and for those of us who enjoy this sort of thing, this year’s pre-election meetings will be exciting.  The starter gun for a long general election (or a short one if Gordon goes for the shock and awe) campaign is likely to be fired.  The tone and tenor of each conference will be fascinating.  Already those of us working with clients to set up meetings at conference will have noticed that Conservative contacts are more cautious this year.  Not reticent, but clearly more nervous about speaking opportunities.

I’m working on a brilliant event too – of which more anon…