Labour Party Conference diary

Published on 01/10/2012 01:36

There was some nervousness ahead of Scots Night at the conference as for the first time in recent years there was to be a ceilidh.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont recalled another ceilidh at which she managed to lift Margaret Curran’s husband off his feet during a strip the willow. He apparently landed on a trestle table.

• Marks & Spencer was seen as Margaret Thatcher’s favourite high street store, but it has made an appearance at this year’s Labour conference. However, any suggestion the chain is trying to bridge the political divide were undermined by the slogan on its stall: “Plan A because there is no Plan B”.

• It seems Old Labour is well and truly alive, with one of the most popular stalls on the conference fringe set up by the Campaign for Real Ale. The stall had a queue of delegates waiting to taste free samples as the conference officially opened at noon. But it wasn’t the only bitter taste on offer: the beer from the Ridgeway Brewery in Oxfordshire is in Prime Minister David Cameron’s constituency.