Cllr Iain Lindley's Diary

A few quick highlights of day 3:

• I was in the Conference Hall for George Osborne’s keynote address at lunchtime. I thought George struck the right tone and I am sure that people will appreciate that he is being up front about the perilous economic situation the country faces, unlike Labour who have stuck their collective heads in the sand. We now have a clear choice on the economy between Conservative realism and Labour fantasy.
• After the Shadow Chancellor’s speech I popped in to a fringe event hosted by Age Concern and Help The Aged about how the over 50s are faring in the current recession, which includes some remarks from Nigel Waterson MP and an interesting debate about compulsory retirement ages.
• In the evening I went to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust reception and had a very interesting discussion with Gary Ellis their Finance Director about the work that the CRT do.
• I popped in to both the Conservative Friends of Israel and Conservative Muslim Forum events but unfortunately wasn’t able to stay very long, and later in the evening I attended the Manchester Airport Group reception.
• I went along in the evening to the Conference Pride event on Canal Street, which was a fabulous event although I didn’t stay for long. I was highly amused to find two different (and equally tedious) protests outside, one with some humourless Labour hacks accusing the Conservative Party of being homophobic and the other accusing us of being too pro-gay. Perhaps that’s an indication that we’re actually getting things about right – certainly I have plenty of gay friends who are making a real contribution to the Conservative Party.