Hansom’s conference

These days, it’s difficult to tell which way the political wind is blowing. It seems that Tony Douglas, chief operating officer at Laing O’Rourke, is similarly confused. He was listed as a speaker at a skills event on the fringe; however, I hear the pragmatic Mr Douglas is also due to appear at next week’s Conservative party conference in Birmingham. Anyone spot him at the Lib Dems’ do last week too?

It seems Olympics minister Tessa Jowell could have shaved a few thousand pounds off her expenses bill this year – by not going to Beijing. The minister seems to believe she’d have had an equally informative experience watching the Games from her sofa. “Probably the people who were watching the Olympics on the BBC with the red button and so forth had a much better experience than us,” she told a fringe meeting packed with no-doubt-delighted tax-payers.

Why was the Construction Umbrella Bodies’ fringe event cancelled this week? Were the sector’s great and good sealing a last-minute deal with Gordon Brown? Sadly, no. The only construction-specific event was canned owing to a conference diary oversight. Easily done: after all, the industry only generates about 10% of the country’s GDP …