683 SDP Conference

First  viewed : 10  September  1984

Watching  this  was  not  quite  as  desperate  as  watching  cricket - I  was  now  a  student  member  of  the  Liberal  Party  after  all -  but  it  sits  somewhere  on  the  same  spectrum.

The  party  was  in  a  strange  position, almost  wiped  out  in  the  general  election  a year  earlier  but  now  led  by  one  of  the  most  impressive  political  performers  of  the  decade keeping  their  profile  high  almost  singlehandedly. They'd  also  been  boosted  by  Mike  Hancock's  recent  by-election  in  Portsmouth  South. All  I remember  from  this  conference  is  some  attention  being  given  to  a  guy  called  Fitzgerald  and  his  "Limehouse  Group"  dedicated  to  keeping  the  party  true  to  Labour  values.

Not  long  into  my  next  term  at  university  I  switched  from  the  Liberals  to  the  SDP  because  the  Liberal  Society  at  Leeds   was  dominated  by  hardline  supporters  of   trouble-making  local MP  Michael  Meadowcroft  and  very  hostile  to  a  mooted  alliance  with  moderate  Tories  for  student  union  elections  which  I  thought  made  sense.

David  Owen  kept  up  his  high  profile  and  after  an  impressive  performance  at  the  1985  conference,  the  Alliance  briefly  topped  the  polls  again   until  Neil  Kinnock  stole  the  headlines  a  fortnight  later  with  his  attack  on  the  Militant  leader  Derek  Hatton., a  key  moment  in  Labour  coming  back  in  from  the  cold.

The  1986  Conference  was  marred  by  a  looming  row  with  the  Liberals  over  defence  policy  and  by  the  time  of  the 1987  Conference  all  hell  had  broken  loose  between  the  parties  over  the  idea  of  merger. In  any  case  I  was  working  by  then  so  the  days  of  watching  live  Condference  coverage  were  over.