Emily Sutton from Total Politics just wrote up her trips to five conferences this year, taking in the English and Welsh Greens, the TUC, Labour, the Liberals and the Tories. Hard work, methinks. So many speeches, so many votes (well, at some conferences, anyway), and only a limited number of glasses of wine to cushion the blow.
But what did she make of the people?
- Greens: "the delegates, although peculiar, each with their little quirks, were very friendly and welcoming".
- TUC: "the delegates, although questionably sober, were the most friendly and genuine."
- Liberals: "I developed a seething and passionate resentment of the Liberal Democrats, or at least those who attended their conference."
- Labour: "The diehard party faithful ... were fired up for the fight of their political lives."
- Tories: "lots of upper-class, white, tweed clad teenagers bounding around with bellybutton fluff for facial hair, old men in Savile Row suits grasping their canes for dear life."
Apropos of this, I think it was the social at our most recent conference that best showed the differences between the Greens and the others.
The entertainment, organised by the inspirational Councillor Danny, included two brilliant Zimbabwean brothers from Seeds of Thought, followed by an open mic session, with musical turns from Councillor Stuart, Robin Harper, and Arnold Cassola, leader of the Maltese Greens.
Even though Labour had Eddie Izzard on the same night, I'm damn glad I was in Glasgow that night.
Having seen a few Green entertainment events, I was honestly surprised and impressed by the entertainment in Glasgow. Good work, Councillor Danny.
On another note, it's funny that a bunch of Green blogs picked this total politics thing up and how consistent the hate is for the libdems... I guess there may be administrational reasons for that in Edinburgh but there's something deep in our psyche as well. We'll probably have to work with them one day, though...