I am still recovering after a superb conference. Unfortunately we were unable to stay, entailing travelling both days.
Three of us went from Wigan, Me, Susan and Chris Hilton, Gary Chadwick unfortunately being ill.
It was a great pleasure to meet old friends again in the usual friendly and civilised atmosphere prevailing at Conference.
The Saturday was as usual taken up with training seminars and we learnt much about leaflet design, computer use and public speaking. All seminars were presented in an interesting manner, there was no danger of falling asleep but now my job is to remember and put into practice what I learnt.
A full schedule prevented us from attending all the seminars and by "close of play" on Saturday we returned home too tired to even read the paper, knowing we had to be up first thing to return for the debates.
An excellent innovation this year was the proceedings being broadcast on the computer and for a short time before retiring to bed I was able to see what I was missing in the evenings entertainment on the computer.
In the early afternoon the usual march past of assorted deadlegs went by and as usual were ignored. If they were shouting slogans they were wasting their time as they were inaudible inside the hotel. It must be frustrating for them to travel so far to walk past drawn curtains and get no response but the sea air possibly cleared their heads from the effects of the previous day's drugs.
Following Sunday service conducted by Rev West the debates started.
The first motion, put by the chairman which basically stated that we should preserve our national assets and free ourselved from the stranglehold of the banks in order to develop British industry was carried unanimously.
Most motions were carried either unanimously or overwhelmingly indeed it was difficult in some cases to find people to oppose them. That is not to say there was no debate and several amendments were added.
As usual anyone who wished to make a point had the opportunity to do so and the different slants on options alerted us to aspects and implications we had not considered.
For me this is the pleasure of these occasions, being stimulating intellectually and thought providing.
The standard of debate was as good or better than ever and the fact that it was broadcast live showed the confidence of the Party in the quality of its delegates. I did not realise at the time it was being broadcast and was somewhat taken aback when Gary Chadwick said he saw me speak from the comfort of his home. I hope I did not say anything untoward and let Wigan down.
I found myself thinking during the debate whether the other parties could have debated publicly in such an intelligent and civilised manner.
One motion concerning the "Bill of Rights" and the Monarchy was defeated.
As usual, following the debates we were treated to the closing speech by the Chairman who entered the hall to the strains of the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" which I thought was very apt. Whatever our individual beliefs we have been formed by the Christian tenets and our laws and society built on them and the singing of the hymn was a demonstration of our British unity.
Nick's speech was as usual inspiring. He referred to the way the banks had become the masters and not the servants of the country and the greed and profligacy perpetrated by them had and would hit all members of our society(apart from the mega rich) and would impact severely on the poor.
He prophesied that we would continue our progress and in a way the financial disaster caused by Brown would help people to see that we are the only party committed to the prosperity of all in our country.
The meeting closed with the usual emotional rendering of "Jerusalem" which always brings tears to my eyes.
P.S I have a DVD of the Leigh meeting and Nick's closing speech (on one DVD) which will be available at Thursday's meeting or by phoning me at the number at the top of the blog.
