The Wardman Wire

Today is the day that David Cameron makes his keynote speech to conference. Last year it was about keeping the Tories in the game, this year it is about convincing the electorate that the Conservatives are now ready for government. It shows how much the Tories have moved on this year, but unfortunately [...]

There is usually some sort of debate this time year about who has the advantage going in to the conference season in terms of order. Every year it is the smaller parties first, such as UKIP and the sort, then the Lib Dems, followed by Labour and then concluding with the Conservatives. The [...]

Lots happening here today, with the conference hall abuzz after an emergency speech on the economic crisis by David Cameron. Mr Cameron promised that he would set an example to US Congressmen by supporting Gordon Brown’s legislation.
Taking a moment of respite from the country’s economic woes, the partying was contining at full force last night. [...]

A hard act to follow
George Osborne had a hard act to follow after he stole the show with his inheritance tax announcement last year. As if to make things even harder, the government today announced the nationalisation of the Bradford and Bingley which is also vying for the news headlines. It does say [...]

Conservative Conference Coverage

Garbo on the Floor

Garbo, who writes here weekly, will be posting updates in between his real job.

Video

We will be posting a number of videos, as they become available.

Conference Diary

During the Conservative Conference we will be running a Conference Diary from the “Reform” think tank. It will probably be each day, but I’ve just said “post when you like as long as it is interesting”.

Where to find our coverage

Four places:

• On the blog.
• In the “Party Conference 2008″ Tab on the Magazine View.
• In the RSS Feed for all Party Conference Articles.
• In the “Party Conferences” category.

Experimental Advert

Also, I’m experimenting with a Messagespace “Leaderboard” advert at the top of the page for the next week or so to see how it fits.

I have requested that they don’t use the “Popout” version on the Wardman Wire, as I consider that to be too obtrusive.

In my opinion one of the competitive advantages of blogs versus Media sites is that a simpler presention is possible, without us needing to pursue monetisation via such obtrusive adverts - popups, popunders, expanders, auto-play videos and the rest. I hope that I can hold that line as I play around with different types of advert here.

Apologies that this update has been a little while in coming, but that’s largely been due to a very frantic and busy first day here at conference. We arrived on Sunday morning and Birmingham was very quiet, the ICC near-empty - but by lunchtime the masses had descended and it was heaving.
A couple of good [...]