Friday, March 05, 2004
From Bristol to Mold
Spent last night in Bristol at the Colston Hall, watching an outstanding performance from the The Libertines. As soon as I was back in Swansea I was off again, this time heading to North Wales for the Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference. Got here just in time for an HTV reception and the Conference rally. After the fish and chip supper I returned to my hotel to find all the journalists in the bar. They have decided that the story of the night is "what was the point of the Conference rally?" They have a point. It was all rather worthy stuff but Charles Kennedy was addressing the nation and not Wales, whilst the others were really repeating lines that we have been putting out for months. Spin Doctors like this sort of thing. They believe that we should be on message as often as possible. In some cases they prefer this to debate. I do not believe that this was the intention of the rally, after all we are having some very serious debates this weekend, of which the one on fluoridation has the potential to be both passionate and contentious. Furthermore nobody can possibly argue that referring to the life of MPs in terms of the House of Commons bars and the showers, as Lord Carlile did, should be the talking point of the night. However, the real question that the journalists wanted a answer to was "what was he getting at when he talked about the showers?"
