The New Statesman party is usually the first big event of Labour’s annual conference and you can get quite a sense of how the week may pan out.
This time Charles Clarke was an early arrival keen to spread the word about his Sunday Times article in which he cheered on the idea of a leadership contest.
Clarke’s not a popular figure in Manchester just now – neither with delegates nor senior party figures. Leave aside John Prescott’s attack branding the former home secretary a “bitterite”. One senior Labour figure told me that they could neither understand what had happened to Clarke – nor what he thought he was playing at.
“He’s been there right at the centre of things for years and now look at him. What’s he think he’s doing?” they asked angrily.
I’ve been going to these conferences for nearly a decade and this is an odd one. Especially if you think back just a year. Then the atmosphere at the NS bash was feverish as we all speculated about a snap election.
It was virtually the only conversation. How things change and the talk now is whether Gordon Brown can survive.
Curiously it may be that fears over the economy are his best allies just now. It would be rash to trust either David Cameron or George Osborne with such a challenging situation. This needs more than a background in PR or the enthusiastic efforts of a former chorister – actually I don’t know that about George but it just seems to fit.
After the NS party I went back into the security zone. Alistair Darling was having a drink with Neil Kinnock in one of the hotel bars and the Unite union bash was in full swing.
Some people at least seemed to be trying to have a good time and most seemed agreed that the prime minister is liable to come out of conference stronger than he went in. After that it will depend on what sort of direction he can give his party – and his government.
If nothing else it’s time to shine the light on the Tories and their superficial transformation.
David Miliband does that writing on our conference blog. The foreign secretary pours scorn on Lexus Dave’s progressive pretentions and insists Labour can win the next election. But it needs to set out a bold vision.
“The Tories now claim to agree with our goals. But David Cameron says that “progressive ends will best be met through conservative means.” And that is the new con, in Cameron’s conservatives. You cannot deliver progressive ends by Tory isolationism from Europe and Tory anti-statism.”
In the meantime everyone is looking to see just what Brown’s bold vision is.
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