M

The main surprise of Labour Party conference this week was that the party managed to keep itself together, just, and didn’t disintegrate into back stabbing and in fighting, well not too much.

Cabinet Ministers kept to their agreed truce before conference not to talk about the leadership or the deputy leadership, although this didn’t stop journalists asking about it. They were either brushed off with impatience by those with no intention of running or by unbearable smugness by those with every intention of running (yes I’m talking about you Alan Johnson). Or in John Reid’s case, cheerfully denied any intention to run, before giving a speech that was essentially one long nod, nod, wink, wink.

Backbenchers, party members and hangers on however felt no such compunction. Cherie called heir apparent Gordon Brown a liar. Peter Mandelson (he who resigned from the cabinet twice before being sent to Brussels to start bra-wars with China, and fail to secure a WTO deal) spent all day Tuesday suggesting Brown might have character flaws, notably he never got over Blair winning the leadership back in 1994. Mandelson is one of those who is widely accredited with describing Brown as ‘psychologically flawed’ in the early years of the Labour Government, it was him, or Blair, or Campbell…

John Prescott apologised for his behaviour over the past year (the affairs, the American tycoons, the cow boy hats) and announced that yes he would be standing down from the deputy leadership when Blair stands down from the leadership. Which is quite fortunate as little known backbencher Jon Cruddas announced he was running for the deputy leadership and was immediately tipped by the Guardian as one to watch. Declared deputy candidate Pete Hain continued to be very orange (his fake tan alone was enough to make housemate Steve shudder), he also used to be in the Liberal party. Hints abound that Leader of the Commons, and former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will stand for the deputy, he pointed out what the rest of us already knew this morning, that the situation in Iraq is dire. Hillary Benn, the International Development Secretary, has been accused of provoking a row with the World Bank in order to further his deputy ambitions, although he has shown little to no sign of this being the case. Harriet Harman remains the only declared female candidate in any race.

Blair gave his final speech to rapturous applause and a realisation from many that we will miss him when he’s gone. Very few can give a speech like Blair, but one of those is Bill Clinton who returned to speak at the conference, where he is universally adored. Leaving many to ask, if we’re getting rid of Blair can we have Clinton instead?

Conference joke of the week: Blair – “Well, I don’t have to worry about [Cherie] running off with the bloke next door”.
Non-Conference related quote of the week: “The EU is not a joke. It is like a bicycle”, EU Justice Commissioner, Franco Frattini
Next week: The Tories search for policies in Bournemouth

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.