Party conference season

[Carol Anne]

I always thought that the government of the day traditionally held their conference last. This time they held it second last. Is this something new or have I been wrong all along?

[luckyboy]

Its been like this for as long as i can remember.

Lib dems, then labour and tories regardless of whose in office...well it has been since labour got elected in 97 anyway.

[vehelpfulguy]

This may be so they can book the venue one or two years ahead without worrying who is in power.

So for example Labour and Tories both may both book a venue for next year, then we have a surprise election and the tories win (some hope).

If that happened both parties would have to change the dates of their conference, and it may be that the venue is not available that week. 

[bernardo]

The Conservative Party has had its conference in the week after the Labour conference for as long as I can remember - e.g. the Brighton bomb blew up on 12th October 1984.  The last time it was not so was in 1959, when the Labour conference was held in November and the Conservative conference was cancelled all together (because of the General Election happening).  The last time the Labour conference was the week after the Conservative one was 1955.