All shapes and sizes together for Republican convention

PHILADELPHIA - So, we are all here. Delegates from across America in boaters and baseball caps, stetsons and straw hats, some with blue rinses and some with body piercings, have travelled to Philadelphia.

Perky young women in clompy shoes from internet news services and grizzled veterans with drink problems from gritty Midwestern morning papers, celebrity anchors and even John Lydon, the former Sex Pistol, have come here to tell the world (or that section which is interested) about the goings-on.

But what is important, it is made clear roughly every 10 minutes or so, is that we are here together. It is up there in huge letters inside the stadium where the delegates are gathered: Renewing America's Purpose, Together. The last word has a vivid streak of red paint underneath it so we don't miss it. Sometimes, there is a comma in the slogan, and sometimes a full stop.

The dynamics of a convention are important and nothing is left to chance, so every visual element has been carefully coordinated. The podium is not some vast, towering Nuremberg-style affair; there are steps leading up to it from the convention floor. They are probably called the Steps of Opportunity to the Podium of Achievement, or some such.

The colour blue is everywhere; but it is not the dark, masculine Oxford Blue of previous conventions. Instead it is a warmer colour, the kind of thing you might use to decorate a child's bedroom. The team from Changing Rooms has been in.

The speakers have been chosen to complement this. So yesterday morning we had James Rogan, a Californian Congressman who is very likely to lose his seat in the November election because he was one of the men who managed Bill Clinton's impeachment last year, and his constituents are inordinately fond of the President.

Mr Rogan didn't talk about that; he told us about his mother for fifteen seconds, instead.

Then Joan Johnson, a black Republican from New York State, came to chat. She was swiftly followed by a slightly limp man who wanted us all to know about farmland preservation in New Jersey.

The speakers come and go against a light-blue background the colour of sky, as well as some nice ferns or plants which make the whole thing look as if it might have been shot outdoors.

Around lunchtime, just in case we had not got the message, there was a band playing soul and R'n'B classics. There was a black woman pastor presiding; a large black lady danced with lots of ill-coordinated white people in button-down shirts. It is clear that this week, we are going to get down, whether we like it or not; and more importantly, we are going to do it together.

- INDEPENDENT