The Five Autumn Conferences

They were, in order, the Green Party (London), the TUC (Brighton), the Lib Dems (Bournemouth), Labour (Manchester), and finally, the Tories (Brum). Emily Sutton, from the magazine, Total Politics, had a stall at each, and has an interesting take on the Lib Dems:

"However, not even the first morning had passed when I developed a seething and passionate resentment of the Liberal Democrats, or at least those who attended their conference."

"The conference was dull, delegates seemed scarce on the ground, and I witnessed first hand the inherent middle class prejudice of the party who champion themselves as the party of eradicating discrimination and promoting and valuing minorities. Counting the number of ethnic minorities on my fingers - no need for toes - I spent the entire conference having to explain to delegates, who gave me that patronising tilted head look, that of course I knew who Nick Clegg was (unlike most of the general public) and am in fact interested in politics. Apparently being young, female and having the added misfortune of being blonde automatically excludes you from having any interest and or knowledge of politics."