Liverpool Labour Party Conference 2011 Day 3
Yesterday
Today I did two things.
In the morning, I went to Tate Liverpool now in its 22nd year to see the Rene
Magritte exhibition which was simply spectacular. About 800 people a day have
been coming to it since it opened in late June (it runs until mid October) with
many more at the weekend so my sense was that over 100,000 will have seen it
which, given the recession, is very impressive. I left humming Paul Simon's "Rene
and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War".
In the afternoon, I listened to Ed Miliband's speech via a television link as my
conference pass did not allow me into the main Hall. We are in a building phase
and three and a half years away from an election so there wasn't much for the
soft Labour voter or switchers as Ed laid out his personal stall. It was more tomorrow than yesterday
but over the next year we must move to address how we are going to differentiate ourselves from the past.
By the time you read this you will have seen the news read this evening's commentariat.
I will put up the main points of his speech separately.
You can only move out of the recession if you cut taxes and increase the amount
of funding for school buildings, hospitals and the like. You cannot do it just
by higher taxes and cuts to the public sector.
Later, I caught a train home.