I’m off to Party Conference tomorrow and have just finished packing.  Obviously a couple of suits went in, along with a number of shirts and ties, but what are the must haves for a successful conference?  Here’s my list*:

5 Hour Energy - because let’s face it, you’re not going to sleep.  This is an energy shot drink from the States; only 15 calories and no crash afterwards (oh, and it might contain 8333% of your daily intake of Vitamin B12).  It’s like Red Bull, only it works:

V05 Texturising Gum - because come hell or high water you don’t want a hair out of place [cough, metrosexual what?]:

Plasters - because, sometimes um… you know… after a long night’s ‘networking’ you might fall over and cut yourself:

Your own towel - because it’s conference, and the hotel you’re staying in is… well, horrible**:

Cigars - because it’s Tory Conference, and you want to do everything you can to conform to a stereotype the Labour Party will jump on:

Paracetamol - because networking requires a lot of effort, and you’ll feel it in the morning:

Eye Drops - because networking requires a lot of effort, and you’ll feel it in the morning:

Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments. 

* Please note this list is entirely tongue and cheek… you know, a joke
** For the record I’ll be staying in a very nice apartment, complete with balcony overlooking the city and wifi (oh yeah, and clean towels):

It would seem Labour are up to their usual tricks (you know, ignoring fact).  On the Labour Party website they’ve essentially accused the Conservatives of planning to cancel hundreds of school building projects:

One problem with that… it’s not true.  The Conservative paper that Labour is citing makes clear that no building projects would be cancelled.  Rather, they’d be taking £1.5 billion a year from the Building Schools for the Future fund for allocation after 2011. Why 2011? Because no funds have been allocated past 2011. And where would this £1.5b go? Um… into building new academy schools!

Something tells me that a little research into some of Labour’s other claims on their website would yield similar results. 

If you are then this is the site for you.  Very cool interactive map that lets you know which way different states are leaning and links you to blog posts about the campaigns in each state.  Well worth a look:

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has hit another home-run with their latest report which tears apart Labour’s claims to economic confidence; and before any yells foul it should be borne in mind that TPA have compiled their report using official statistics and international comparisons. 

Of course it wouldn’t be the TPA if they hadn’t come up with an inventive way of grabbing people’s attention to make their point.  With that in mind, behold the Brown Calculator:

On the face of it Brown has just received a well needed boost of support from members of the cabinet, but as ever in politics, all may not be as it appears.  With all that we know about disintegration within the Parliamentary Labour Party - disintegration that equally affects the cabinet - is it more likely that the current statements eminating from ministers is a display of support for:

Gordon Brown:

Or, David Miliband:

I know where I’d put my money. 

I’ll be at the Adam Smith Institute this evening from 6 where I’ll be speaking about Total Politics at around 7.  So if you’re in the area why not pop in (although you’ll need to RSVP first).

Before that though I need to decide what to say.  Got any good jokes? 

That mischievous Bear has somehow got his hands on some video editing equipment:

I’ll be doing Sky.com/news tonight at 7 discussing the ‘Movers’; as ever there are some great stories!  But why am I doing it at 7 rather than the usual 7.30?  Because thanks to its popularity it’s been moved up the schedule (congratulations to the team behind the show who’ve turned into an absolute must watch (and an award winning must watch at that!)). 

Oh, it has a new name as well SkyNews.com.  So why not tune in and see what all the fuss is about! 

Ok, so this post is a little late; but in fairness I had to choose between blogging and relaxing in the Florida sunshine!  I decided to watch the McCain speech with the College Republicans at Florida State University; aside from anything else I wanted to get a feel for how staunch party loyalists would react to it. 

Needless to say McCain’s speech wasn’t very well delivered, but then nobody expected it to be; McCain has always been a terrible public speaker, unable to convey sincerity.  But even with that taken into account the speech was terrible, nothing new being said, nothing to really motivate the base, and nothing to match Obama in terms of appeal to the centre.  Indeed so bad was the speech that within minutes of in starting almost every member of the college republicans sitting at the tables in front of the TV starting talking amongst themselves, paying next to no attention to the proceedings on screen. 

Only at one point did the speech stand out, with the assembled audience of College Republicans paying attention; when McCain told the story of his time as a POW.  The narrative was strong, and in that moment McCain sounded like a man destined to be president of the United States. 

All told the speech hasn’t done McCain any favours, but then it hasn’t done Obama any favours either; in poll after poll we see a statistical tie.  The long and short of it is that this race is going to be tight, and it’s anyone’s to win.  But if McCain wants to give himself the edge, he needs to learn how to motivate his base. 

Just got an email from a friend linking me to a page on the Royal website about Swan Upping?  What is Swan Upping and why is it relevant to politics?  Well, dealing with the second part of the question first it has absolutely no relevance to politics; it just amuses me (which brings me to what it is).  Basically it’s a bunch of blokes, dressed in silly clothes, running around in rowing boats on the Thames capturing Swans to count them.  Why?  Why the hell not. 

We’re a funny people:

Right, back to politics.