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Conservative Party Conference

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Conservative Party Conference

The Conservative Party Conference (CPC) is a four-day national conference event held by the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It takes place every year in October during the British party conference season, when the House of Commons is usually in recess. The event's location has alternated between Birmingham's International Convention Centre (ICC) and Manchester's Central Convention Complex since 2008. Previously, it had alternated between Blackpool, Bournemouth and Brighton. In contrast to the Liberal Democrat Conference, where every party member attending its Conference, either in-person or online, has the right to vote on party policy, under a one-member, one vote system, or the Labour Party Conference, where 50% of votes are allocated to affiliated organisations (such as trade unions), and in which all voting is restricted to nominated representatives (known as delegates), the Conservative Party Conference does not hold votes on party policy.

The conference, which consists of fringe events, receptions, and speeches, gives Conservative Party members, the press, and the public a chance to learn about the party's ideas and policies for the year ahead. The focal event is the leader's speech, which is given by the incumbent Leader of the Conservative Party at the end of conference. In some special circumstances, the leader will make a speech at the opening of conference. An exhibition area is also featured every year allowing businesses and Conservative Party-affiliated organisations to promote their brands and messages from exhibition stands throughout the conference period.

The chairman of the Conservative Party Conference is always the current president of the National Conservative Convention, the parliament of the Voluntary Party. The National Convention meets twice a year—its Annual General Meeting is usually held at Spring Forum, with another meeting usually held at the Party Conference. Since 2017, the Democratic Unionist Party has hosted an annual reception at the conference, owing to the alliance between the two parties in the 2017–2019 parliament.

The 1953 conference took place in Margate. Winston Churchill's speech took place on 10 October. He had recovered from an acute stroke in June of the same year; Anthony Eden wrote in his diary that Churchill intended to use his speech at the conference to "try himself out," before he returned to work in Parliament. He had initially written an hour long speech of 4000 words, but reduced this to 50 minutes following advice from his doctor Charles Wilson, 1st Baron Moran, who also prescribed him either Edrisal or Drinamyl tablets. He was also given throat spray before the speech.

At the 1977 conference, 16-year-old William Hague made a speech, stating that young people like himself wanted to see taxes cut, union power curbed and the frontiers of the state rolled back.

The 1980 conference was headed by Margaret Thatcher in Brighton. Her speech on 10 October included the line “you turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!”

During the 1984 conference, held in Brighton, the Provisional Irish Republican Army targeted the government in a hotel bombing on 12 October. While it did not kill any Cabinet members, it killed five people and injured thirty four. Despite this, Thatcher insisted the conference begin at 9:30 a.m., and in her speech she stated "this attack has failed. All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail."

The 1992 conference followed a surprise victory in the 1992 general election. In his speech which promised that the government’s welfare reforms would stop benefit fraud, social security secretary Peter Lilley adapted the “little list” song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado.”

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