We are just nearing the end of a six week long stage managed series of party political broadcasts:

Green Party of England and Wales – 7 to 10 September, in Bristol
Trades Union Congress- 9 to 12 September, in Brighton
Plaid Cymru – 13 to 15 September, in Brecon
UKIP- 21 to 22 September, in Birmingham
Liberal Democrats – 22 to 26 September, in Brighton
Labour- 30 September to 4 October, in Manchester
Conservatives – 8 to 11 October, in Birmingham
Scottish National Party – 18 to 21 October, in Perth

What useful role do these gatherings play in the modern political process?  Do they turn people on to politics or turn them off?

The first Conservative Party Conference was held in 1867 at the Freemasons Tavern in London under the initiative of the new Leader of the Conservative Party, Benjamin Disraeli of whom we have heard much over the past few weeks. The idea of a conference and the formation of the National Union and a couple of years later Conservative Central Office were all part of the modernising of political parties in response to the Second Reform Act of 1867 which had extended the franchise to 1.5 million working men.

I cannot track the progress of the of conferences since 1867 but I have been attending Conservative Party conferences for thirty years and have witnessed a very significant shift in their approach and appeal. The purposes of Party Conference in 1982 might be broadly summarised as:

The election of officers to serve as part of the National Union the governing body of the Conservative Party;

An opportunity for the grassroots party workers who had spent their year canvassing, distributing leaflets, raising funds and contesting local elections to give their opinions on policy direction to the Party leadership. There was vigorous debate on the conference floor based on motions proposed by the Party members and selected by the National Union. Some sessions were closed to the media to allow for frank debate;

We would meet in seaside locations because it was an abundant source of low cost accommodation at the end of the busy summer season;

It was an occasion for would be parliamentary candidates to impress, or otherwise, association chairman who were on the lookout for bright young candidates and bold older ones too. The list of memorable speeches from the conference floor is a long and distinguished one which stretches back even before 1977 when a certain Master Hague came to prominence;

It was an opportunity for the activists to rub shoulders with the great and the good and the famous politicians of the day secure pledges to speak at fundraising events, get photographs to insert in election leaflets or to raise constituency issues;

It was an opportunity to unveil new initiatives and proposals and to communicate essential messages;

Above all conferences were about the Party activists upon whose heroic efforts elections were won, thanking them, recognising them and coming together with those whose victory they had helped secure and debating the way to secure success.

So how has Party conference changed over the years?

Well, from the activists perspective it is no longer their show. The National Conservative Convention, the successor of the National Union used to have its gathering at Spring Conference but as that has been cancelled it is now limited to a couple of hours prior to the start of Conference. The conference show is more about the leaders delivering their messages to those watching outside the hall than members being allowed to deliver their messages in the conference hall.

As a result of the changing nature of political discourse in the conference hall most of the debate happens around the Conference Fringe with hundreds of small events and gatherings but here again we find a certain difference which I am sure is true of all party conferences: with the choice of city centre locations such as Manchester and Birmingham conference has become out of the financial reach of many party members.

This leads on to policy debate around the fringe which of course is way out of the league of party members to organise and therefore is dominated by major corporates, well funded charitable organisations, lobbyists and think tanks all of whom have their agenda which may or may not be the same as the party member as they seek to have their event graced by the presence of a minister relevant to their interests or a special adviser.

All of this means that the Party Conference is not quite the beauty parade and shop window for the aspiring candidates as opportunities to shine are limited. Of course candidate selection is much more tightly controlled by the leaderships of all parties rightly seeking to avoid some of the calamitous local selections which happened in the past.

It is very much a feeding frenzy for the media and in the highly competitive world of modern journalism they fight to be the first with the conference scoop. They are the grandees, the celebrities of the modern political age holding court at the conference hotels as ministers come to pay homage and engage in on air duels as they lick their lips hoping for a disloyal slip or gaff.  To echo the words of Hugh Grant this week: ‘None of us want a state run media but neither do we want what we increasingly have–a media run state?’

This is not to blame the leadership of any party or the media it is just the inevitable progression of political discourse: most voters will have their votes informed not by an activist standing under an umbrella seeking to push a soggy leaflet through a bristle lined letter box but through watching their leaders on a studio sofa. Membership of the Conservative Party has fallen from around 3 million in the 1950s to just under 180,000 now and all other parties have seen the same trend.

Political parties therefore need to adapt to survive and this modern incarnation of the political conference is part of the adaptive process. It is a sanitised, choreographed occasion in which to deliver a message to the electorate sitting in their homes. The opinion polls show that this often works with leaders securing a short-term bounce in their party’s ratings following a strong conference performance. Yet where is the passion of debate? The clash of ideas bringing a refining touch to jagged sets of policies and ideas.

So the show will go on but it will be for the benefit of the media and the lobbyists’ perhaps more than for the activists and members. It will go on being a one way street for leaders to annually tell us what they think we should think rather than, as the title suggests, ‘to confer’ in conference with their supporters. It will go on until someone with the vision of Disraeli comes up a radical new idea to connect people with politics, a party with its members, a government and the governed. In the meantime I will see you in Manchester, 2013…..