Conservative conference – Manchester

The conference season approached its end in Manchester, with the Tories taking centre stage. Perhaps the most widely anticipated conference of all, given the current state of opinion polls. The atmosphere was definitely more upbeat than in Brighton, and many party members openly stated that this was best conference they had ever attended, it was clear that this party was in a transition to government.

The conference began with a dark cloud over it, with many media commentators expecting infighting over the Lisbon treaty, this did not transpire. The policy heavy speech of the conference was left to George Osborne to deliver; he delivered with honesty the cuts the Tories would make in government. The risky strategy outlined that a Conservative government would raise the pension age to 66, supposedly saving the public purse £13 billion. Public sector pay would be frozen for the first year of parliament and all public sector appointments that exceeded the PMs rate of pay, would have to be directly approved by the Chancellor.

The discipline in the party was ever present at conference, despite the minor gaffe by Chris Grayling, the Tories were trying to show the British public that they are serious and ready to govern.

David Cameron’s closing speech was more subdued than many commentators were expecting. Despite this, he delivered his speech on values and his beliefs extremely well. His anger at Labour was executed with passion, and he spoke at length about the tough times ahead and how the “view from the summit would be worth it”.

Labour conference – Brighton

The conference was dubbed “Operation Fight back”, despite this the atmosphere was subdued, with some commentators comparing it to a wake. However, there was no doubt that this conference was the beginning of a fight for survival.

The fightback was not helped by the Sun newspaper, switching political allegiance on day two of the conference. Defiant minsters stated that they would not be bullied by the press and the repeated the mantra “people decide elections, not newspapers.”

Mandelson’s speech was the highlight of the conference for many delegates, putting Operation Fight back into words with his usual humour and charisma. It was clear the speech invigorated the party; he said "If I can come back, we can come back". Though his speech did become somewhat overshadowed by end of the week, with him referring the Sun newspaper as “chumps”.

Interestingly, Andrew Marr used his Sunday chat show to ask the PM about prescription drug use, a rumour that has been doing the rounds for some time now, the PM rebuffed the question with ease.

The centrepiece speech was of course left to the PM, in wide ranging and policy laden speech, he listed Labour achievements and announced a swathe of new policy and formally abandoned compulsory ID cards for British citizens, to great cheers from party faithful. Other headline grabbing measures included a referendum on a proportional representation voting system, local authorities will be given the power to ban 24-hour drinking licences

The PM finished with, "Never, never stop believing ... We are the Labour Party and our abiding duty is to stand, and fight, and win."

Liberal Democrat Conference - Bournemouth

The conference season has begun, in what can only be described as a stormy week for the Liberal Democrats, often being credited as the party with confusing policies this conference did nothing to add clarity.

As many commentators have already pointed out, this did not feel like a pre general election conference, the atmosphere was subdued, there was bickering around policy and even leadership criticism. Have the Liberal Democrats missed their big moment?

Understandably there was infighting over the cornerstone policy of abolishing tuition fees morphing into an ‘aspiration’. Clegg’s call for ‘Savage cuts’ quickly became ‘progressive austerity’ and the Lib Dem’s biggest asset, Vince Cable, also took a dent receiving much criticism, for failing to adequately brief his shadow cabinet colleagues, on the underdeveloped proposals for a “mansion tax”. Party insiders claimed that the ‘open debate’ was at the core of the party’s policy creation, in attempt to downplay divisions.

In a marked departure from previous election strategy, Clegg has set his sights on discrediting the Tories, by referring to Cameron’s vision of change as ‘fake change’. It is clear that they have decided that Labour is a sinking ship and they must board Tory boats to be in with a chance at the next election. With this in mind, the general election may be ‘make or break’ for Clegg, if he fails to retain or improve upon the Lib Dem’s current 63 seats.

The closing speech by Nick Clegg needed to be good and it was, it had depth and was well delivered. It was an ambitious speech which even went as far as setting out his shadow cabinet, perhaps too ambitious with Ladbrokes currently offering odds of 150/1 for Clegg becoming PM at the next election.

PSA will be travelling to Brighton at the weekend, in what promises to be a difficult conference for Gordon Brown. With the Baroness Scotland affair continuing to rumble on, it seems his leadership will be under question once again.

PMQs takes a “helicopter view” of Afghanistan

The final Prime Minister’s Questions before the long summer break was dominated by a spat over helicopters. Neither the PM nor Conservative Leader David Cameron could make a knockout blow as each tried to goad the other with generalities about how to fight a war. The PM said that a lack of helicopters didn’t lead to loss of life – but he was planning to send more anyway. Mr Cameron countered that the ex-Chancellor had cut the budget for helicopters while at the Treasury.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg suggested that the PM was “busy doing nothing” and, to groans from MPs, highlighted a lack of progress on electoral reform as an example. The PM batted him away, saying that Opposition parties lacked policies on jobs, homeowners and small businesses.

MPs now have nearly three months off for the Recess and may well be busy doing nothing themselves.