Rupert has attended and spoken at numerous political conferences to great acclaim

Spring Forum 2010

Conservative Party Conference October 2009

Without doubt one of the best Conferences ever - and I have been attending since 1985. David Cameron's speech was a classic, setting out our stall for the British public in dramatic style. I liked William Hague's speech myself, while Boris was at his barnstorming best, nor can I forget my old mate Mark Harper making an appearance as a junior shadow minister for the first time.

* I had a stand in the Freedom Zone on Monday & Tuesday 10am to 5pm. Dozens of people stopped by to chat while I helped with campaigning advice and handed out leaflets about my activities as a fundraising speaker. If you want have an event coming up and need a speaker to liven things up, just the Contact page to get in touch and I will send you an email version of the leaflet. 

* Along with Jonathan Isaby of Conservative Home and Michael Rock, CF National Chairman, I acted as a judge in the Tories Got Talent speaking competition on Monday evening. The event was a great success and was covered by Radio 5 Live. The quality of speakers was very high with real passion, knowledge and much speaking skill on display.

Mind you, shame about the weather.

Spring Forum took place in Cheltenham on 25/26 April 2009.

Most of Saturday was taken up with meetings about the European Elections, due on 4 June. In the evening I went to the Freedom Association drinks reception, followed by the main dinner with Boris Johnson - a lovely evening with a fantastic speech by Boris to round it off - well almost as I went on the CWF reception after the dinner. On Sunday I tried to get to a training event, but it had been cancelled. I did get to the TRG reception for a few minutes, but then had to dash off to a meeting about voting procedures at the European Elections. As already notified, I was unable to find a room for my usual Tea and Buns event, so I organised a meeting for the East Midlands in the bar instead, and very enjoyable it was too. I got into the main hall in time to hear Dan Hannan's speech, which was great. David Cameron rounded things off with one of his best speeches to date. Some photos are included below.

Party Conference 2008 was in Birmingham

At the 2008 Party Conference I had a full programme throughout. I had a stand in the Freedom Zone on Monday and Tuesday, took part in two fringe meetings and competed in the Tories Got Talent speaking contest - which I won (see below).

Conservative Party Conference this year took place at the ICC in Birmingham, starting on Sunday 28 September and running through to Wednesday 1 October.

It was without doubt the best Conference for years. There was a real buzz about the place. The only downside was that with all the speculation that the Conservatives were on course to win the next General Election the conference was overrun with lobbyists and corporate sponsers. But if that is the price of success, then I guess it is worth paying.

On the Sunday I spent most of my time mooching about the ICC. I tried to get into the conference hall to see the speech by Boris Johnson. Unsurprisingly the place was packed and I could not get in, so I watched it on the big screen in the cinema next door. Later that evening I went to the CWF (Conservative Way Forward) drinks reception where I bumped into a number of old friends and colleagues.

Monday dawned bright and fair. I had to get up early to set up my stand at the Freedom Zone – housed in the Austin Court just a stone’s throw from the ICC. I was stocked up with buns and cakes for anyone from the East Midlands who came to see me, and had some of my books with me that were for sale.

At 10am I took part in the fringe meeting “What should be in the Conservative European Manifesto 2009?” On the panel with me were JP Floru, John Flack, Stuart Wheeler, Teresa Coffey and Zehra Zaidi. The meeting was was gratifyingly well attended.

The suggestions made by the audience were (in no particular order) as follows.

1) If the Lisbon Treaty has not been ratifed when a Conservative government takes office, a referendum should be held on the Treaty immediately. The speaker said the referendum needed to be held immediately so as to give those cunning bureaucrats over in Brussels no chance to rush something through that would undermine the referendum.

2) If the Lisbon Treaty has been ratified then an incoming Conservative government should undertake a base review of Britain’s relationship with the EU and seek to renegotiate our terms of membership.

3) A Freedom of Information Act should be passed by the European Parliament to open up the notoriously secretive dealings of the EU Commission, Council of Ministers and other EU institutions.

4) The Common Fisheries Policy should be scrapped. If necessary, Britain should withdraw unilaterally from this highly damaging programme.

5) The Common Agricultural Policy should be made more transparent so that we can actually understand what is going on.

6) All EU agricultural subsidies should be scrapped. The New Zealand model was held up as an ideal to be aimed at.

7) The monthly commute of the EU Parliament to Strasbourg and back should be scrapped

8) The EU Defence force should be abolished.

9) The EU should be more constructive in its roe lint eh WTO and GAP talks os that the latest round of talks could be brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

10) The various EU nations should increase their defence spending and commit themselves to supporting NATO and UN operations with troops on the ground.

11) There should be a new and stringent code of practice introduced for MEPs.

12) Coal fired power stations should be encouraged to be built to reduce our reliance on gas imports from dubious sources.

13) A cost-benefit audit of Britain’s membership of the EU should be carried out, probably in the form of a White Paper.

14) The Court of European Justice should be reformed to ensure that it actually applies the law instead of interpreting it in such a way as to favour Euro federalism.

15) An incoming Conservative government must draw up a list of desired EU reforms, together with a deadline of 2 years for them to be implemented of Britain would begin talks to secede from the EU.

As can be seen the proposals formed a very mixed bag – which was probably to be expected. Some of them would not be in the gift of the EU Parliament even if it were minded to grant them, but would be the preserve of a Conservative government at Westminster.

In conclusion, the meeting was very lively, verging on boisterous at times, though the chairmanship of Roger Helmer MEP kept it under control.


At 3pm that afternoon I hosted a second fringe meeting “How to use your MEP candidate for campaigning and fundraising”. I was pleased that my old pal Adrian Thompson was able to be the main speaker – he had been instrumental in running the East End of London for Boris Johnson during the London Mayoral campaign. And I was most flattered to find an Italian candidate came along to join in. So a big welcome to Snr Gianluigi Premazzi of the the Movimento Libero party.

That evening I trailed around a number of receptions, ending up with very tired and aching feet that dragged me off to bed.

Tuesday was in many ways quieter. I spent most of my time on my stand – which did at least mean that I could sit down although I was busy welcoming visitors pretty much the entire day.

In the evening I entered the “Tories Got Talent” competition. The rules were simple – each competitor had to make a 3 minute speech on any political subject they liked. I was both surprised and pleased to win. Two of the judges have written about the contest on their blogs. See Nadine's comments on:

http://blog.dorries.org/Blogs/2008/Oct/01#01

See Iain's comments on:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6214838&postID=2688327304380467251

Wednesday dawned wet and miserable. I tried to get in to the hall to hear David Cameron, but again and equally unsurprisingly it was packed and I could not get in. Again I watched on screen.

All in all, a very busy and hugely enjoyable conference.