George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor and Tory election co-ordinator, will be contributing to Coffee House throughout conference. Here is his first entry:
The first full day of conference. Morning meeting at 8am with David and the team, setting out exactly what we'll do today. Much as I'd like to share the details, I cannot, even with you, dear Coffee House reader. Then onto Sky's Adam Boulton programme in the studio overlooking the conference. Snippet in case you missed it: Adam: "Are you going to introduce out of hours supermarket parking charges?" Me: "No." Who says politicians can't give a straight answer?
Watched William Hague's barnstorming speech on TV from my hotel room, while working on my own speech tomorrow. As his former speechwriter, it reminded me that penning speeches for William Hague was a bit like singing backing vocals for Aretha Franklin.
Fascinating lunch with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. When you think of getting policies from New York, we all tend to think of policing. It's true that New York has lots to teach us about reversing the rise in violent crime but Bloomberg really lights up when he's talking about education. He has taken huge schools in difficult areas and split them into smaller schools. Graduation rates have doubled. And he fought tooth and nail so that kids who don't pass their exams repeat the year. And now middle class families are sending their kids to inner city schools. It's a virtuous circle. But his main message to us is political: Take the difficult decisions that you need to. People respect you for it.
He's speaking this afternoon at the Conference – and he'll be introduced by Arnold Schwarzenegger on a video link from California. I think I can safely say it would be difficult to find two politicians who are more different – but their message is the same: centre right politicians win elections by addressing the mainstream issues like health, education and crime and offering real change. That is exactly what we are doing here in Blackpool. And even the sun is shining!