International   

A month of froth and hot air for Tories

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON OCT. 11. From Brighton to Blackpool to Bournemouth. Britain's long season of party conferences, an annual hardy that produces more of the same froth year after year, is finally over leaving behind a pile of bold declarations, promises and quotable quotes.

The season ended on Thursday with the Tories signing off their own conference in Bournemouth on a note of self-serving optimism that few outside the hall appeared to share. The party leader Ian Duncan Smith, whose lack of charisma is seen as the biggest liability as the Tories desperately try to claw back into reckoning, told his dwindling and demoralised flock to "go out and tell the world that the Conservatives are back''.

And, then turning to his critics within the party, he warned that they should "not underestimate the determination of a quite man''. The "quite man'' was, of course, himself and look-he told them — what he was capable of doing: "When I say a thing I mean it. When I set myself a task, I do it. When I settle on a course, I stick to it.''

``Brave words. Well done, Ian,'' his supporters said. But two days ago, the same audience gave a thumbs-up to the party chairperson, Theresa May, when she reminded them how they were perceived outside: as `nasty, ' unrepentant, just plain unattractive...untrustworthy and hypocritical.''

In the end, however, the four-day conference, billed as the last chance for the party to hit the road again, attracted more attention for Ms May's "hot-to-trot'' leopardskin shoes and

the continuing internal wrangles between the "modernisers'' and the `nasties' than for what it achieved.

If Bournemouth produced the "quiet man'' and his premature declaration that Tories are `back', Blackpool, where the Labour Party had its conference, still echoes with Prime Minister Tony Blair's ringing boast that "we are at our best when we are boldest'' as he tried to put a gloss on his lurch to the Right. This was no "quiet man'' trying to make an impression, but a supremely confident leader convinced of his own invincibility and that of his party.

In Brighton.-the venue of Liberal Democrats' conference — Charles Kennedy matched rhetoric for rhetoric. He had his flock on its feet when he declared that he had seen the future and it belonged to them. Writing off the Tories as grey men of the past, he vowed to replace them as the main Opposition in Parliament before going on to knock at No 10.

It has been a full month of hot air, and even politicians think they need a break.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Congress grants Bush war powers
• Russia may back a `mild' U.N. draft
• Cross-border terrorism must end: Denmark
• A bad signal from Pak.: Sinha
• Out of the frying pan into the fire?
• India, Pak. should resume dialogue: Rocca
• 23 die in blast at Chechnya police headquarters
• Terrorist outfit owns up attack on tanker
• A month of froth and hot air for Tories
• A message to Iraq, says Japan
• New Nepal Govt.
• Yet another sniper strike
• MMA announces arrival with a `bandh'
• 3 killed in Trincomalee blast

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu