Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Sunday afternoon of party conference is when the host mayor welcomes delegates, a time when all but the party diehards are still travelling to the conference or checking in to their hotels.

The fact that the keynote speech on energy was slotted into the agenda yesterday afternoon tells you all you need to know about the focus of this year’s Conservative Party conference. The economic situation – both at home and across the eurozone – is what the party wants to be seen to be taking action on. Everything else comes a distant second.

Sandwiched between weekend pre-conference coverage, and anticipation of George Osborne’s speech today, it is not surprising that yesterday’s speech took up few column inches – The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph being the notable exceptions.

So, what did Energy Minister Charles Hendry have to say? And more to the point, was any of it new? Again we heard about how much generating capacity is due to close in the next decade, and about how much investment is needed in energy infrastructure. And again we heard about a new generation of (unsubsidised) nuclear power stations, and the jobs this would create.

In fact the creation of thousands of new green jobs, and revitalisation of former industrial cities, was a theme running throughout the speech, coming up in discussion of offshore wind and carbon capture. The fact that these cities are exactly the Labour heartlands that the Conservatives will need to make inroads into to win the next general election is mere coincidence…

In all then, nothing we haven’t heard before. Perhaps the fringe is where the fresh ideas are – watch this space…