A foreseeable fuchsia for Labour?

Surrender signals from the disposable Lord Mandelson and frustrated wailing football analogies by the Chancellor are not the auspicious signs needed for a successful Labour conference. It is of course easy to read all sorts of coded messages into ministerial utterings but this is a time for Labour to provide a clear message for itself; let alone the voters.

For governments, conferences offer the chance to recount their achievement – and the party can select from an impressive list of social reforms from the early days when things actually did get better. But the subsequent highlights also include Iraq & WMD, an accident-prone cabinet, parliamentary expenses and an economy where bankers appear to be rewarded for hastening everyone else's recession.

Labour can call on some of its own slightly depeleted list of big hitters to ramp up the rhetoric - although don't expect too much from an event in which handlers still exert a stage-managed stranglehold over proceedings and the only radical thing allowed on the platform are subtle changes to the backdrop colour scheme. Even so, in these days of celeb endorsement counting as much as policy, it will be interesting to see how many 'faces' appear at regular intervals compared to those with pressing alternative engagements, darling.

Presumably they too would be willing to put their experience at the disposal of the country if Labour lost power. There’s a lot of that about at the moment.