Conservative Conference

Or do you just wish to snipe?

Why? I have never been loyal to any politician no matter what they do or say jura either on here or in RL.
I admire politicians from all political parties and wish I could make up a dream team from them all.
Sure, if there was a GE I would vote to keep the Conservatives in power, simply to keep Corbyn out, but I am able to judge any one person from speeches they make and not from tribal loyalty.Are you?

lemon- without fear or favour.

Oh you made my day - I laughed so much it hurts.

Corbyn hailed Venezuela as Utopia, that isn’t worrying

Perhaps Hunt didn’t watch The Body guard, I certaintly didn’t .

Could be the audience was sparse because many party members were working. The labour conference had more union speakers than party members, very few MP’s bothered to attend , apart from the shadow front bench .

After the the three conferences the prize for ‘good grief ‘ must surely go to the union rep with white hair flowing over his shoulders or the MP who called for a national strike.

What a splendid chap/chappess you are lemon. Without fear or favour; I like that...

MaizieD
I was living in Bulgaria when they went into the eu.
They had a joke at the time.
We had the Turks rule us and we got rid of them.
We had the Russians rule us and we got rid of them.
We now have the eu ruling us and we'll get rid of them, but first we'll take their money

MaizieD unlike some who take political loyalty to the nth degree, I have no need to wriggle round it, and I give my opinion on any politician of any political stripe without fear or favour.
So, having now read it all, what I think is that he was appealing to the ‘grass roots’ and that it was an ill advised part of his speech ( about the EU) at a point where we need some tact and dignity. We dislike Tusk and others playing silly buggers with instagram sneering and so on, so we should ourselves be above that sort of thing.

Now for an aside - has anyone noticed that the lectern has a sticker of a Union Jack cut in half?!? Is it to illustrate just how divided the Party is, or the country even? Seems like a very bizarre emblem to endorse for a Conference?

Agreed varian but I had hoped that Hunt had a bit more tact and diplomacy, skills which are needed in the FO. His speech today was unbelievably crass and offensive to those countries who had previously been under the oppressive regime of the Soviet Union. Now, we all know ( from The Bodyguard, if nowhere else) that speeches are written, reviewed, reviewed again for errors of policy, of law, and then passed for publication so to speak. So, we must assume that Hunt knew what he was saying, others knew what he was saying, but still he stood there and said it. It was appalling.

Hunt is no better than his idiotic undiplomatic predecessor.

He must have been the worst Health Secretary we ever had and now he is competing with BJ for the title of worst ever Foreign Secretary.

You don't have to read it, lemon, just watch it, there's a video clip on my link. I don't think anything has been taken out of context but I'm sure you can wriggle round that...

I will read all his speech though, as often things are taken out of context if only insults, or perceived insults are in a link.

true, you get many more packing in if you make it £3.

I haven't read Hunt's speech as yet, but will do, and comment on it then.

^ Audience sparse -^

At 500 quid a ticket it's not really surprising.

Yes, Venezuela is a salutary lesson to all who fancy a socialist government

It's just a right wing bogeyman, lemon. There are many reasons why Venezuela is in the terrible state it's in, most of which bear no resemblance to the UK at all.

Any serious analyst would be able to tell you that but I suppose sniping at people from a position of ignorance is much more fun than being informed about a topic.

Did you approve of Jeremy Hunt insulting the EU and all the former USSR countries within it? I posted a link to the insults bit earlier, (just in case you missed the speech)

Yes, Venezuela is a salutary lesson to all who fancy a socialist
government.

I thought Hammond's speech was rather good, he isn't a great orator, or a showy one, or a rabble rouser, but in plain sensible speech told of his aims for the future.

anyone who hopes for a labour style Conference will always be disappointed, there are no yelling whistling or whooping crowds, no standing ovations for madcap ideas like a General Strike if they don't get their own way, and no long angry oratory going on.

Haven't heard any other speeches as yet.

Apparently, at the CPC, the Adam Smith Institute has made this suggestion: that the UK takes 10,000 refugees a year from Venezuela, since the regime there doesn't seem to be working too well for folk.

Thanks Maizie, I thought NI had voted to stay, and assumed the DUP supported this. Gosh,it gets ever more complicated doesn't it.

Philip Hammond came across as a rather faded representative of the Undead (who was that Discworld character...?MR Slant?) Audience sparse - but maybe they are all on the jolly "training sessions" promoted by an ambitious young speaker yesterday. "This conference is really a training camp! A boot camp!" he chirped.

The DUp supports leaving the EU, I'm afraid,*Gill*; although NI as a whole voted to stay.

Just when you thought things would get better when Boris left the FO, along comes Hunt. Just what is he playing at? I don't like him, or what he is doing to the NHS, but that aside, I was cheered on his appointment as a replacement for Boris as I thought (a) he had some decorum, dignity and sense of responsibility and protocol and (b) he couldn't be worse than Boris, but........after today I truly despair. I agree with you Jura, if only the persecuted members of the Labour and Tory parties would join up with or vote with the LibDems and the Greens ( and SNP and DUP) then this nightmare could start to clear. I assume the SNP and DUP, representing voters who don't wish to leave EU would come down on the side of Remain, but perhaps someone with better knowledge could correct me on that? Either way, when even the 'big guns' of the party offend people who we are still allied with and wish to do future business with, we truly are stuffed.

This guy's not very impressed by Hunt's analogy, either:

Dear Mr. Hunt,
Greetings from Lithuania, Britain’s loyal partner in NATO

Greetings also from myself, Mark Adam Harold, a British immigrant democratically elected to the City Council of the beautiful capital city Vilnius, a city which, thanks to EU freedom of movement and to those who fought to free Lithuania from the Soviet Union, I have been proud and able to call my home since 2005.

A lot more, then:

More importantly, and I cannot stress this enough, your speech spat in the faces of millions of dead people’s surviving relatives, people who experienced and resisted and suffered under actual soviet terror, people who were actually imprisoned in the actual Soviet Union, people who fought for and prayed for the kind of freedom you take for granted and now recklessly abuse.

markasftw.com/jeremy-hunt-eu-soviet-union/

They're preparing the 'blame the EU' message for when Brexit goes even more pearshaped. As Professor Dougan predicted they were likely to in 2016:

twitter.com/damocrat/status/1021364125589540864

But they will blame the EU for 'being difficult' ...

Hunt is a Pratt just like Boris, he is Foreign secretary that is supposed to behave and speak with at least some decorum and be the mouthpiece of the Government.

This total exaggeration does nobody any good we are free to leave the EU if we wish, nobody is going to get shot or even restrained. At some time in the future we are going to make a trade agreement with them, why offend them, this is not negotiation it is playground taunting!.