15 Comments

• Liam 11th Apr '07 - 5:54pm

  Is this the best point for me to ask whether the current question – “What’s your favourite federal conference venue from recent years? ” – has left out Manchester on purpose?

  I found the Manchester venue to be perfect for the Conference, and whilst I know there may be all sorts of reasons why it is frowned upon from those “on high”, I thought it did its job. Any chance we could ever go back to the MICC?

• Rob Fenwick 11th Apr '07 - 8:07pm

  I don’t remember going to Manchester in the four or five years I’ve been a member… I must’ve skipped that conference! When was it?

• Alex Wilcock 11th Apr '07 - 9:48pm

  And just because you think nobody would vote for Blackpool…

  Look, it’s got a Doctor Who Exhibition, however grotty.

  In fact, so (as of very recently) has Manchester!

  Are you not a fan, Rob?

• Alex Wilcock 11th Apr '07 - 9:50pm

  Also, when was Federal Conference held in Enfield? I must have missed that one.

  Is your poll 250 or so hours, perhaps?

• Alex Wilcock 11th Apr '07 - 9:53pm

  (Whoops – 250 or so hours late. Well, it’s clearly past my bedtime! Let’s see if there’s a new poll in the morning.)

• Rob Fenwick 11th Apr '07 - 10:02pm

  I give up and I want my mummy.

  New poll!

• Alex Wilcock 11th Apr '07 - 10:33pm

  Readers who’d already voted may like to have another go, as poor beleaguered Robin has just replaced the slightly wobbly poll with a more accurate one. It adds Blackpool and Manchester, and shifts the ‘South’ venue north by a couple of hundred miles. All this means that, if you’d like to ready your suspicious bar charts, the representation of the North West increases variously ‘by 3’, ‘by 42.86%’ or – if you have a really, really long bit of paper (a Moebius FOCUS may be necessary), ‘by infinity per cent’. Beat that, YouGov!

  As I type, there’s equal support for all the Bs…

• Liam 12th Apr '07 - 10:58am

  “I don’t remember going to Manchester in the four or five years I’ve been a member… I must’ve skipped that conference! When was it? ”

  Er…It was the drugs motion and…can’t think what year it was now. Damn aged memory.

• Dan 12th Apr '07 - 2:30pm

  Why no Edinburgh or Glasgow?

• Rob Fenwick 12th Apr '07 - 2:38pm

  Because it’s about Federal Conference venues in recent years.

• nigelashton 12th Apr '07 - 11:31pm

  Manchester was Spring 2002.

• Dave Hennigan 12th Apr '07 - 11:48pm

  I remember making the point at a fringe meeting at the Manchester Conference that the Conference in Manchester was an awful idea. This was mainly as I was on the Council at the time and enjoyed travelling to Conference. Getting the bus home legless wasn’t part of a Conference experience.
  Love the seaside ones – although Harrogate is good too.
  Brighton, too expensive – Blackpool too expansive.
  Rochdale would be good – Cyril would even hold a fringe meeting in his house! Well worth considering. By the way… we’re well on the way to a good election!

• James Graham 13th Apr '07 - 9:03am

  Pleased to see Manchester back on the list. The last Lib Dem one there was great and while the city struggled a bit with a conference the size of Labour’s last autumn (I was there), it can cope with us, no problem.

• Liam 13th Apr '07 - 11:41am

  I have to agree with a return to Manchester. The MICC worked as a venue, the city itself has a great atmosphere, and, perhaps crucially, it offers a credible Northern option for a venue.

• Ryan Cullen 14th Apr '07 - 1:18pm

  Wow, shocked to see that I’m not the only one voting Blackpool, unless those pesky Tories are trying to rig our poll.