Cycling makes it onto the agenda at Manchester's Labour Party conference

Tis that time of year again when Our Glorious Leaders and opposition parties move their freakshows en masse to some convention centre or other for a week of polished speeches and reasoned debate on the fringes.  Yes, it's party conference season again.
Manchester has done pretty well out of these things in the past few years - the Tories even came here last year which is odd given they have zero councillors and zero MPs.
Usually, the only real effect a party conference at G-Mex, sorry, Manchester Central, has on cycling is that Lower Mosley Street and Windmill Street are shut meaning you have a detour if you usually use that route.

New street furniture offers freestyle opportunities

But, yesterday, Maria Eagle, shadow transport secretary and MP for the good and bad constituency of Garston and Halewood [actually that should be bad and good], actually put cycling and, specifically, cycling safety into her conference speech.
For me this can only a good thing: while cycling was not exactly at the heart of an emerging transport plan, the fact that the cycling lobby has made enough noise to get onto the agenda demonstrates the direction of travel cycling and cycling issues has made in political terms.
The Tories are at it next week in Brum and I for one will be looking at what Patrick McLoughlin might say about cycling and cycling safety.