What the TV Cameras Didn't Tell You About the Conservative Conference

All smiles for the cameras but who was in the audience?

I find this article, written by Peter Oborne, to be a really refreshing and quite scathing attack of the big corporate interests that now dominate party politics - as well as party politics more generally. The article is really quite scathing of the Conservative Party, while still being intelligent enough to understand why big business leaders have replaced the ordinary party members who presumably used to throng Tory Conferences. It says a lot about why politics now is more corrupt than it ever was.

To me, that situation seems totally farcical. Outwardly, through the media, we are given the impression that the people who fill the Conference Hall are relatively 'ordinary folk' that Mr Cameron describes when he is talking about getting Britain working again as he does his 'Bulldog spirit' bit. But it isn't. It's the managing director of Tesco or the Chief Executive of some other huge corporation! It is reassuring that there are still journalists who have not been totally incorporated into the profit-obsessed world of big business and media yarn spinning for companies - journalists who still care about democracy and the truth about who really influences, funds and even dictates Government policy.

I have to say that when I heard Cameron's speech as he was defending his plans for businesses to expand onto the countryside, I did wonder whether he was speaking directly to the Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons and Co-Operative section of the audience, rather than us at home. Oborne's article is really quite damning of the Tories, who, lets face it, have always managed to outdo Labour - even during the Blair years - (though Blair, individually, is another matter), in courting the interest of large corporations and, doubtlessly, allowing such corporations to influence Government policy. Very interesting article, highly recommended.