This Year's Conference Session: A Case of the Same-Old?

And so - another Conference session has gone by - the rhetoric has faded, the media has moved onto more pressing issues and life just simply goes on. Or does it? In its entirety, the outcome of this year's political referendums have become slightly a matter of public opinion - with the current economic climate, British social aficionados and citizens are so eager to see where the ball heads next that the very question of Government (or more aptly, future Government) is in our minds if not outspoken in our conversations. The purpose of these Party Conferences - in case you're not aware, these run annually for each of the main parties in the UK, Labour and Conservative generally being most televised in the media and pop-press - are to savour party confidence and roll out one's policies for the forthcoming year. In reality they are also an opportunity for parties to lash out against one another in favour of increasing their popularity amongst the electorate. Most years, parties often have to gripple with the issues of inflation, tax, unemployment, education; in general the very standard concepts that bend a country. But this is not most years. Morale is low, debts are on the rise, our PM is plummeting in leadership and our economy is in tatters.

Yes, the economy. Where economy is such a glorius word for overcomplicating issues that affect you and I. The economy is always a huge element in conference discussions, because it so interplays all the factors laid out above. But never so more than this year. This year was a should-be turnaround surge for political right-wingers in the UK. This year was less about the economy than it was about policies and political euphemism. First and foremost, for those who did watch any of the conferences, one can only notice how biased the media has been towards the two main parties - I for one wasn't even aware that the LibDem conference had taken place at all. This misdistribution in vesting public awareness is the first flaw I see in the effectiveness of political conferences. How can one seek to truly analyse the views of a political left or right if you can only see one side? Or if the beloved media only makes access for a select few parties? I'm not LibDem fan, but this surely flies in the face of 'democracy', however ambiguous or libelous the term is today. Shouldn't media coverage be unbiased and equal in coverage?

What we thought we got this year was the dawn of a new era in British politics. With a Cameron-Osborne duo imploring their proposals for a Tory Government, their ideas including:

- a two-year ban on council tax for all UK households (Back of the net!)
- creation of a Department for Fiscal Responsibility (basically holding the Government accountable for all their spending patterns)
- bringing History and classical discplines back into British schooling.
- reformation of the Benefits system

and a few more, one could easily be led in to thinking that this was Cameron's turn-around. And indeed, it could be considered as an era-defining speech. But behind all the hype, behind their popularity increase due to the number of people now jumping on the bandwagon of capital martyrdom (ie. unhappy with the current climate) I couldn't help but feel that it's still a helluva long way to 2010.

Gordon Brown's speech was famous pretty much for the use of his no-time-for-a-novice gimmick. In terms of sheer substance, the Tories this year undoubtedly had more in the way of slightly revolutionary ideas; Gordon Brown, on the other hand, spent much of his time falling back on political failures and actually doing his reputation more harm than good. The no-time-for-a-novice idea, though clearly aimed at the lesser experienced in other parties, clearly worked against him in ambiguous referall to David Miliband - our current Foreign Secretary - who has been much tipped to succeed Gordon if he were to step down. In an attempt to forward his own status, Brown again has managed to shoot himself in the foot. Quite simply, he has to go.

But the overall point to this article is that when these events come about, how much are they actually about fairness and reasoned logic? How can the British public decide between parties if the journalism narrows our choices down to an either-or contest between Labour and Tories. Cameron did well in his speech, as did many others in his cabinet throughout the conf, but I couldn't help but feel that too much of the focus in his keynote address was to counteract Gordon Brown's statements.

Why just Gordon Brown? Would it not have been more commendable for him to have touched upon - or against issues raised by the Green Party or LibDem's? Would it not have seemed more objective if his argument were not aimed at Labour voters, but the small (though no less important) minority that support Greens, LibDem or (god help us) the BNP? Instead, the political bias once again overfloods our opinion (please chew over this week's poll question on the right for mind-candy) This bias in there being only a real choice of two parties in this country leads me to feel let down by the system. Let down that in a 'democratic' opinion, the media has become so capitalist-driven that readers are no longer granted a free opinion. Instead, we alone have to filter good and bad press, rehearse the political stances of our newspapers to see which we can trust, which are more readable and unbiased. Maybe this is good for capitalism, but in not one of the speeches I heard this year was anything made clear about reforming our media.

I have no doubt that in whatever eventuality the British economy will see an improvement over the next decade or so - and in fact despite my opinion, I have no doubt that if a Conservative government were to be elected to power (and that if is and should still be a very, very important thing to keep in mind) they would make things better. But after the hype has faded, and we all go back to work, and Brown is possibly paddling his early-retirement dinghy in Glenrothes and Nick Clegg once again is the hero of the underdog party I hope the changes we see will have been good - and more importantly, made for all the right reasons.