On with the show

Manchester is gone, forgotten. Next stop Birmingham and the Conservative party conference. Between now and Monday, when The Freedom Zone opens its doors, it's all hands to the pump.

We still need speakers for one or two meetings and there's a long list of other things that need doing. Not least, we need what Margaret Thatcher famously called the "oxygen of publicity". Come Monday we want as many people as possible to know about The Freedom Zone, the programme of events, and the 40+ speakers. So here's what we're going to do:

• On Sunday 2500 flyers will be distributed to party conference delegates in the official delegate pack.

• On Monday and Tuesday a further 2500 programmes will be distributed to delegates inside and outside the secure area.

• The Freedom Zone will be advertised in the conference issue of Total Politics magazine - and banner ads are already appearing on leading blogs such as Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale's Diary.

• Last but not least, we're publicising the event on various social networks.
  
  I can't promise that The Freedom Zone will be a success - but we're giving it our best shot. Final programme of events HERE. Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[idlex]

I hope that the Freedom Zone is rather more successful at the Conservative party conference than the one at the Labour party conference appears to have been. But I'm not optimistic.

Alastair Campbell remarked earlier this week that the Tories had no programme, no policies, and didn't deserve to enjoy the support they currently do. This is quite true. But it's entirely beside the point - which is that a great many people now so detest the Labour party and everything it stands for that they are now prepared to vote for just about anything else.

David Cameron doesn't have to do anything to win the next election, other than present a moderately plausible alternative government to Labour. The country now invests its hopes in the Tory party in exactly the same way as it invested its hopes in the Labour party after the detested Thatcher years. The Conservative party is now the party of hope. It would not serve the party any good to shatter those hopes by doing something as silly as setting out a set of policies and programmes. It serves Cameron best to be all things to all men, rather than particular things to particular people. Furthermore, if he were to come out with any practical policies, this bankrupt Labour party would probably steal them (as they did with the inheritance tax proposals just before last year's abortive election).

No. It serves Cameron best to project a fresh face, to radiate confidence, and to speak eloquently in the vaguest possible terms about 'freedom' and 'democracy' and so on - without ever committing to any course of action.

Smokers - who note that Cameron was, and perhaps secretly still is, a smoker - would like to see Cameron come out and make a principled stand against the smoking ban, promising to amend it or repeal it. But antismokers and nonsmokers - who note that Cameron has given up smoking - hope and believe that he will keep the ban in place, and perhaps extend it further. Clearly someone is going to be disappointed. Why disappoint people, and lose votes in the process, by coming down on one side or other?

Even if Cameron hates the ban as much as most smokers do, there is probably not very much that he can immediately do about it when he takes office. The forces of antismoking are now global in nature, and they are entrenched in the medical establishment, the political classes, and the media. They are very powerful. If he wants to even slightly amend the ban, he will be met with howls of protest and screams of invective.

If he wants to make sure of getting smokers votes, he would probably do best to make some gesture towards them, much like Boris Johnson before the London mayoral election. He might say that his government will 'explore' the possibility of introduce smoking rooms or improved ventilation in pubs and clubs. Lest this alarms antismokers, he might add that he sees little hope of this being possible. Or he might follow Boris by suggesting that smoking bans should be left to local authorities, not to central government.

Once he's in government, he can do more or less what he likes. Smokers - and the country in general - may have to just trust that he won't do anything as awful as the Labour party did.

Now, do I trust David Cameron?