This weekend the Brexit crisis focus is moving from Westminster and Brussels to the Bournemouth International Centre beside the coast path.
The Liberal Democrat party conference is at Bournemouth’s BIC from Saturday 14 September to the following Tuesday.
Brexit is said to be the biggest constitutional crisis since 1940. That year the Labour Party Conference which confirmed the Churchill coalition in power was held at The Pavilion on the east side of the Lower Gardens entrance.
The drama of that occasion was preceded by a meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee in the basement of the Highcliff Hotel where Clement Attlee triggered Neville Chamberlain giving way to Winston Churchill as prime minister.
In 1994 John Major stood on Highcliff Hotel steps to welcome the Ulster Loyalist ceasefire. Over dinner there in 2006 John McCain told David Cameron of his intention to run for President of the United States.
The Highcliff Hotel, at the top of the West Cliff path, is the Liberal Democrat HQ this weekend.
The Liberals can also claim an old link with the town. William Gladstone spent his last days at the top of Bath Hill. His choir seat in St Peter’s Church is marked with a plaque.
Expect some good pictures of Poole Bay on the TV news.
