Tory Party Conference? I still wake in the night screaming.

The Tory Party Conference will be getting into full swing now. "Another six bottles of claret over here squire. In your own time." I must be one of the very few anarcho bloggers who can claim to have attended a few Tory Party conferences. It all goes back to the five tedious years that I spent as a porter come stagehand at the Brighton Centre. Sure, I got to do backstage security for The Jam but the counter balance to such good times was the mind numbing boredom of the party political conference. The Tories were by far the worst. Looking out across the main hall at a vast sea of outlandish women's hats, "the lady is not for turning", the weird born again Christian who used to stage manage the events. My blood runs cold at the memory. Early one morning I approached the Brighton Centre to find the road  leading to the staff entrance at the rear of the building closed off by tight lipped cops. Making my way to the front I caught up with colleagues and found that half of the facade of the Metropole Hotel was missing. The IRA had gone for broke. Thatchers speech that day and the general air of self righteous hubris that pervaded the building had to be experienced to be believed. I think that at that moment I knew that when it came to Thatcher we were in for the long haul. Even in those days Tory conferences were stage managed to the last detail with no hint of anything resembling debate being allowed to disrupt the smooth flow of what was just a party rally. It was a format soon adopted by Labour and now you could be forgiven for not being able to tell apart the gatherings of the faithful.