Conference Town Blackpool, so I hear, is not the most
popular of conference resorts, either with journalists or with politicians. For one thing, the train service is at best dilatory; then there is the impossi- bility of getting from one place to another inside the town without hailing a taxi; then, again, the accommodation consists of one hotel—the Imperial--plus a number of boarding-houses masquerading as hotels. Yet, year after year, the main parties continue to go to Blackpool. They go because it offers a large and comfortable conference hall, and also enough space in the town to house all the delegates. Oddly enough, very few other seaside resorts seem to be able to offer this combination. Which is why such attractive places as Eastbourne, BournemoUth, and Torquay, not to mention Morecambe and Margate, are now off the political conference list, which consists of Blackpool, Brighton and Scarborough, with Llandudno as an occasional venue for the Conservatives and Liberals.
I am surprised that other towns do not try to get their facilities up to the same standard in terms of conference space available. It would,• in the long run, surely pay them to do so. Cer- tainly most politicians would not grieve overmuch if they knew that their visits to Blackpool would be curtailed to, say, once every five years.
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