The Labour Party heads North

The Labour Party last held its national annual conference in the South in Brighton in 2009. This year we gather for the first time in Liverpool and next year we return to Manchester, which hosted its first Labour conference in the modern era last year. The 3Bs seaside venues of Blackpool, Brighton & Bournemouth have been replaced by the city centre convention halls of Birmingham, Manchester and now Liverpool. As party conferences have become bigger, so too have the cities hosting them.

Unless you have a penchant for "Kiss me quick" hats, sticks of rock and fish and chips from Harry Ramsden, the choice of venue doesn't really matter. Party conference doesn't need to be held in the South to be relevant to the South. But as I flicked through the conference guide on the train up I was struck by the absence of any fringe meetings on what is known as Labour's "southern discomfort" (courtesy of Giles Radice's work in this area). Now that is not to say that the debates taking place on the fringe at conference will ignore Labour's challenges in the south; but it is a concern nonetheless.

Stuart King