Party conference season provided the country with an opportunity to see for itself precisely what each of the main political parties stand for. For a Labour politician it was a gratifying couple of weeks. With Tony Blair and Gordon Brown each underlining their commitment to an ever improving Britain where everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their own unique potential and where no one is left behind, the other parties served up some rather uninspiring fare.
The Liberal Democrats conspired to create a snap leadership contest – presumably in order to drum up some interest in themselves and their confused policies – but stepped back from the brink at the final moment when they realised that to do so would destroy their party and invite the Thatcherite wing and the social liberal wing to go head to head in a battle for electoral oblivion. The Tories did much the same. The strangely named ‘beauty contest’ of the five candidates vying to be Tory leader resembled a pointless ‘World Record Attempt’ sketch from BBC’s Little Britain. In the show, Matt Lucas and David Walliams engage in futile record attempts such as creating the world’s biggest mince pie, bathing in baked beans for the longest amount of time or squeezing as many people as possible into a mini car. The Tory leadership contest resembles the world record attempt for the most number of bald men fighting over a comb; this is a pointless contest with a useless prize.
Comedy value notwithstanding, there were some moments from the Tory conference which were truly memorable. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis told the Tory faithful, to rapturous applause, that they should "stop apologising" about what they did in the past. Stop apologising? When did they start? For starters the Tories could apologise to the nurses, the teachers, the doctors. They could apologise to the miners, the steel workers, the shipyard workers, the print workers and practically every profession that makes up our public services and our now shrunken industrial base. In fact, they could apologise to each and every one of the three million people they unemployed. But before any of that, they could apologise to everyone in West Cumbria for the suffering we experienced during the gruelling eighteen years of Tory rule.
Now, despite the misplaced and over-exuberant optimism of the mostly pro-Tory printed press, there is really only one question for whoever wins the Tory leadership, ‘What is the point of the Conservative Party?’ In their hearts, I suspect many Conservatives already know the answer: there isn’t one.
Terry Wynn has written in this issue about Whitehaven’s recent failure to make it into the Super League for the second year running. This bitter defeat doesn’t signal an end to the Club’s recent success – no matter how much it hurts. Defeat to Castleford is not the beginning of the end, it is merely the end of the beginning. I was there to witness the game and, for whatever reason, the Champions simply did not do themselves justice. The challenge now is for the Club and the team to fulfil their potential in next year’s final – and show the belief in themselves that we all have in them. Despite two successive play-off final defeats the club is laying the foundations for sustained success and Whitehaven, like West Cumbria, will eventually achieve its potential. This will take time, this will take belief, this will take commitment and this will take ability. There may be some reverses along the way, there will be times when tiredness sets in and our appetites wane, but as John F Kennedy once said, "a tired nation is a Tory nation." Together we will fight off this tiredness whenever it arrives: together we will fulfil our potential.