Peering through the fence at £800-a-ticket Tory conference

Journalist Nimrod Kamer tried to enter the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, but was discouraged by the 800-pound accreditation fee “to save the Tories,” resorting to street interviews of hesitant party members instead.

The party’s last conference before the 2015 elections was underway, with Kamer unable to get in and instead trying to ascertain where everyone stood on the ISIS bombing campaign and the overall confusion over the Middle East strategy.

Prime Minister David Cameron has lately been desperately trying to keep his party together amid several defections (to the UK Independence Party, no less) and disputes over whether the UK should stay with the EU. Then another question is also on everyone’s mind – and that’s the bombing campaign against the Islamic State terrorists and whether yet more bombing and arms supplies to the Middle East is an adequate solution to a crisis that owes much to the earlier bombing and arms supplies.

“David Cameron has bombed Libya, and now Libya is the biggest mess in Africa. He knows that bombing ISIS is dumb, but he’s going to do it anyway,” Kamer says. “He knows ISIS can launch an attack from anywhere, not just Syria or Iraq.”

Seeking some form of justification of the upcoming strategy by the anti-ISIS coalition, Kamer caught up with one Conservative party member, who put it plainly that “we can’t allow the Islamic State to carry on doing what it’s doing.”

“But we’re [cooperating on this] with the Saudis. The Saudis are even more barbaric. They beheaded more people than ISIS,” Kamer retorted.

“Well, at least they have a so-called rule of law there,” the party member said in a visibly hesitant manner, adding that he doesn’t condone whatever kind of human rights transgressions may take place in Saudi Arabia, but “Well, what can I say – apparently it’s an ally.”

Asked if he thought the world could quickly wipe out the IS, the party member shook his head with a laugh: “Not at all.”