Hull East won’t be represented in Brighton this year. I’m one of our two representatives, but we can’t afford to go, and we’ve never been to an autumn conference. We’ve been to Harrogate for the last three years – just about affordable, and very worthwhile. And we had planned to go to Blackpool two years ago, but my colleague, the driver, was ill, so I had to back out. Much as we would like to go to Brighton, it just isn’t possible when you’re on a low income. Take a look at the train fare, and then add in four nights in a hotel. So we won’t have a vote in the debates. We won’t be able to network, or attend all those meetings of groups based in London.

The frustration is all the greater because we are bombarded with messages about Conference, and the assumption that everybody will be there is in every communcation from the party. Does the party hierarchy not realise that most of the members won’t be there? There needs to be a change.

The conference organisers tell us that it isn’t possible to come north. Manchester isn’t available, and there’s nowhere else big enough and with enough affordable hotel accommodation. Even Harrogate is too small now. What about Birmingham?

I don’t know the answer to this problem of finding a conference venue that’s accessible to less well-off members who don’t live in the south east. We have to have an autumn conference, but maybe it’s time to re-think the form it takes. The party should not be disenfranchising so many constituencies, excluding us from so much that matters.