It’s the beginning of February. It’s Friday. It’s cold. And I am coming down with a sniffle. I should be thinking about the weekend and a trip I have planned to Bristol, but instead my eyes are trained firmly on a heap of forms with such uninviting titles as ‘Conference Observer’ and ‘Executive Observer Status’, and row after row of dotted lines and empty boxes beckoning to be filled in. Ah, the delights of party conference...
Those of you uninitiated in the ways of party conference may have the misguided impression that this happens once a year, confined between the months of September to October, when the Westminster circus decamps from the spender of its Gothic Revival palace by the Thames and unceremoniously plonks its self at the seaside (Brighton or Bournemouth being the particular favourites) or in the middle of one of those shining beacons of urban regeneration, Birmingham, Liverpool or Manchester.
In reality this is ‘conference lite’ - or to use a running analogy - the equivalent of running ten kilometres (or a one mile fun run if you manage to attend just one of them). To be a true campaigner you have to do a lot more - and I really do mean a lot more.
So for those who want to know, here is the gruelling schedule of what the real conference season looks like (‘conference max’ as I like to call it), starting in two-weeks time:
• Welsh Labour conference, 17-19 February, Cardiff
• Welsh Lib Dem conference, 02-04 March, Cardiff
• Scottish Labour conference, 02-04 March, Dundee
• Scottish Lib Dem conference, 02-04 March, Inverness
• SNP conference, 10-11 March, SECC, Glasgow
• Plaid Cymru conference, 23-24 March, Trimsaran
• Scottish Conservative conference, 23-24 March, Troon
• Liberal Democrat annual conference, 22-26 September, Brighton (during my birthday!)
• Labour Party annual conference, 30 September – 04 October, Manchester
• Conservative Party annual conference, 7-10 October, Birmingham
Yes, that’s right. Never to be one to shirk my duties, over the next 9 months, I will be visiting every one of these conferences.
In the name of NRAS, I will be walking, driving and flying to confront politicians about the state of RA services, cajoling them, and trying to enlist their support. And all the while I will be contending with endless amounts of tepid brown food, stale coffee and the occasional sip of vinegar scented wine. Oh joy!
Spending so much time on the road could be a bit lonely (cue the solemn violin music...), but thankfully I won’t be alone, because of the amazing support being shown by our members around the country.
In Scotland, for example, we have a burgeoning network of volunteers who have offered to volunteer to attend the party conferences, and plans are now in place to bring along two members with me to each of the Scottish party conference to fly the flag for RA.
And, not to be outdone, two of our Welsh volunteers have agreed to come along to the Welsh conferences with me to share their stories about their experiences of living with RA and campaign for changes to local RA services.
In England, too, we have had lots of members express interest in getting involved in lobbying politicians, and we are now thinking about how we can involve them directly during the autumn season.
So, buoyed by this support, I’m actually feeling quite chipper. Let’s just hope the weather warms up a bit, eh.
Jamie’s party conference ‘marathon’ season starts on 17 February. Look out for more news, political gossip and traveller’s tails on the NRAS blog, as Jamie makes his way across the UK.
and lots of sound bites from Liam Byrne in September and October 
