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So Alli, Reform Conference is over the
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weekend in Birmingham. They are trying
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to position themselves as the natural
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party of business. How are they going
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So they've been doing a couple of
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things. Uh a first is that their deputy
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leader Richard Ty has been uh engaging
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in something that they've branded a
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bacon and eggs offensive whereby uh they
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are woring uh bosses of footsy 100
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companies and uh big uh industry bodies
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over bacon and eggs. Taken from uh the
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Labour party's famous smoked salmon
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offensive uh in the run-up to 1997.
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uh they've put a rather reform spin on
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it. Um and then latly we've also seen
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Nigel Farage vow to make various
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business leaders uh paid up members of
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the cabinet uh in an attempt to get some
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more business experience uh in
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government should they win the next
1:00
It sounds like a big charm offensive,
1:02
but is it working so far?
1:04
Yes and no. Uh I think would be the uh
1:06
fair answer. They have certainly made a
1:09
lot of progress over the past few
1:11
months. Uh and uh look at the uh sort of
1:15
some of the names at the conference.
1:16
You've got JCB uh being an official
1:19
exhibitor. You've got Heathrow who have
1:21
sponsored the lounge. You've got Tik Tok
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bringing their uh muchloved UK music
1:26
partnership uh to the conference uh all
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involvement which last year just wasn't
1:32
a thing. At the same time, the industry
1:35
body chiefs and uh bosses that I spoke
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to for uh this piece that I've just
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written, a lot of them are only sending
1:42
junior members of their team or agencies
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to basically sus out what's going on
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before uh before sending a a bigger boss
1:50
uh who uh could go along and maybe
1:53
engage with the party a bit more
