As some of you may or may not know, I live in sunny Manchester, the capital of the North. Kind of. Well we like to think so. There is somewhat of a North/South divide here in England. We all have stereotypes of the other, and we find it difficult to shake them off. Us Northerners generally think that the South is snotty, and full of ponces. Where as the South generally think that us Northerners are common and have no class. Now this isn't true, but it is the general idea on both parts. So you could say that there is a certain level of competition between us. So whenever anything big is going on, the North feels they have to prove themselves and go all out, and out do everyone else. You could call it a competitive nature. Usually whenever anything big goes on in England, it happens in London, which is in the South. However, sometimes the North is graced with the presence of something important. Like a treat for us.
This week my beloved Manchester is holding the Labour Party Conference. So all the glorious politicians are here, arguing amongst themselves as they do, and Manchester is the home of this for the week. How lucky are we, huh? Now you would think that this is a pretty simple thing to hold. Just a bunch of politicans, a few hundred television broadcasters have taken over our city centre. I actually stupidly thought that it would not be an issue at all. I would quite happily go on with my life, not noticing the take over of my city centre. Silly me. Let me just create a picture for you. Right smack bang in the middle of our city centre is a wonderful hotel. A really old building, that holds a truly beautiful hotel. Just behind this hotel is the G-Mex, which is where the conference is taking place. When I go to work everyday, me and the thousands of other people that are heading in our city centre for 9 am, we have to go past here. I have to get my tram right past the g-mex, and this hotel. Which I honestly thought wouldn't be a problem. How stupid am I? Rhetorical question!
So it turns out this conference is a major operation. For starters the whole area around the hotel and G-mex is cornered off and surrounded by police. There are police checking every single tram that passes by, which I can tell you is pretty time consuming, and it has basically halted the city centre. On Monday morning I happily went on my way to work thinking nothing of the events taking place in town. Everything was going fine, until we reached the outskirts of the city centre. Where we was suddenly halted. I thought we had just ran into some traffic, and happily continued to read my book. Though it did occur to me that we never usually had problems at this particular part of my journey. Now public transport isn't particularly pleasant at the best of times, but first thing in the morning, when everyone is aggitated about getting to work on time, it is ten times worse.
Ten minutes later we hadn't moved, and I began to get a bit annoyed. So I started having a look at the traffic ahead. The whole lead up to the city centre was grid'locked, no one was going anywhere. Buses, cars, trams, all stopped, and why? Because the glorious politicans had graced us with their presence, that is why! So we all ended up having to get off the bus, and walking into the city centre, and to the tram station. Which was taken over by police, who were checking the trams. Only after all that was done, was I actually able to continue on my merry way to work. The joy of it all. If this what important means, the South can keep it.
Anyway, this isn't really the point of my blog. The point is, I was actually shocked at the level of security that had to be implemented for this conference. You wouldn't believe the amount of police that have taken over the city centre. They are basically surrounding these two buildings, and there is absolutely no getting near them. I guess being a politican is a pretty dangerous job. James Bond eat your heart out. Politicans get a hard time of it in my opinion. They make very difficult decisions, and they have the weight of millions upon millions of people resting on them. They will never make everyone happy all of the time, and on top of all that, they are constantly put in the public eye. Now I know that they do it to themselves, and I also know that not all of them are good, decent people, who are out to do the best for the people, but some are. I can't believe such security is needed to keep them safe. Are politicans really that hated?