You can tell a UKIP member (that's UK Independence Party) from 20 paces, the un-reconstituted Right marching towards their encampment in this un-reconstituted corner of Docklands for their annual conference.

With their shiny white hair and rolled up copies of the Daily Telegraph; with their tweed suits and self-righteously upright posture. Four rosetted pensioners edge out of Limehouse station in a strict formation. The two couples ignore the handmade [...]

Yesterday we had a fantastic international development debate.

We were privileged and humbled to welcome two very different, but equally impressive, international guests to the stage.

Exiled Burmese human rights activist Zoya Phan made a dramatic and emotional speech. Holding aloft heavy iron shackles, she said:

"These shackles were smuggled out of a prison in Burma. This is what those monks who have been arrested will be forced [...]

I don’t know whether it was the stark lighting in the ballroom of the Winter Gardens at Blackpool or the giant backdrop of green trees and blue sky, but when George Osborne strode out onto the stage soon after mid-day, he looked perfectly plausible as a Chancellor-in-waiting. He seemed taller, a bit heavier, his voice fuller, more authoritative. What’s more, he had some real red meat for an audience desperate [...]

My legs are stiff this morning. I guess that's what you get for running 13 miles the day before! The Great North Run is a slog but it's all for a good cause. By completing the race I raised nearly £500 for Own It, a charity based in Newcastle, which helps disengaged students into work placements. I was more nervous before the race then I was before my [...]

1am, later than I intended but always the way it goes, just end up meeting loads of people you havent seen for ages. Fantastic atmosphere here with the mood being very up beat - a general election - just bring it on! Doing 2 fringes tomorrow on mental health and safety in the NHS - late for speech writing but the night is yet young for conference goers! Blackpool giving [...]

As Head of Media for Oxfam, the party conference season is an important place to go and spend time with Britain’s most senior and influential journalists, to discuss issues of the day. There is a rich cast of characters who either are there hunting in the margins for something new, or for new ways to present old problems (Darfur being a classic head-scratcher for many), while others use it as [...]

Ali Miraj, who was kicked off David Cameron's candidate A-list in July, imagines what he would do if he were Tory leader including going on a people management course

In an effort to put the difficulties of recent months behind me I intend to take the following steps:

First, I will shake up the Shadow Cabinet as follows. William Hague will be moved to Shadow Chancellor and made Deputy Leader. [...]

I’ve lost count of the number of journalists who’ve asked when the election is coming, including at 6.30am on GMTV. The answer is simple – I don’t know, and neither does anyone else, with one exception. The delegates in Bournemouth are enthusiastic about the prospect of an autumn poll. They want to give the streets – and the Tories - a pounding.

My conference week has been fantastic. I’ve been [...]

As a wet-behind-the-ears journalist, two months into my first job and on my first trip to a party conference, the prospect of filing for four publications – having never been to Bournemouth before – without a guide or map is a tad daunting.

I realised the level of my naivety at half-past five on Friday afternoon. It was only then my trip was finalised and I had a quick search [...]

My name is Val Price, and with my husband Fred, we have been members of the Labour Party since 1964. We joined in Slough when Fenner Brockway – then MP for Slough – lost by eleven votes in that General Election. We were horrified. He had been vilified by the local and national press through the Tories for his support of the anti-apartheid movement and his work with ethnic minorities. [...]