GORDON'S SPEECH- WHAT HE DID NOT SAY

I listened today with some care to Gordon Brown's speech. It was crafted meticulously - he is no Tony Blair ( thank God) but he did it well. If you listened to the rhetoric there was little anyone would disagree with. Much to applaud too. More aid to the developing world, past achievements like the cutting of NHS waiting lists, more nursery care, , scrapping of compulsory ID cards, and then the undoubted truth that a Labour Govt is better than a Tory one.
But,unlike Eddie Izzard, I was not in tears. Because you see good as things sound they could be so much better. Labour cuts because it has to, said Brown. The Tories because they want to. I do not doubt the latter statement. The end result, as far as the public sector is concerned, will however be the same. And Labour COULD make cuts which many of us would cheer to the rafters.
Cuts in tax to the low-paid, cuts in expenditure on Trident ( cut all of it) . Cuts in defence expenditure in Afghanistan ( by bringing the troops home).Cuts in subsidies to the private sector.
We could also reap rich rewards to the economy by cracking down seriously on the tax dodgers and bankers in the City, attract thousands of votes via a mass house-building programme. And maybe even more as winter beckons by stopping the rank profiteering of the private utilities. By taking them back into public ownership.
Couching what is a basic acceptance of the capitalist crisis bail-out - without radical solutions - and couching it in quasi-socialist rhetoric is clever strategy . It may even be sincere. But the British people ( to use a Gordon Brown phrase) see little difference between us and the Tories. Clear red water could only help in giving us a fighting chance at the Election.
And please in future years can we be spared Leader's partners waxing lyrical at the rostrum. I do not doubt Sarah Brown adores her husband. It is very little to do with the business of running the country.It may have been lapped up by the Party faithful. The wider general electorate find such stunts rather manipulative......
As I pack my bags for Hebden Bridge I suppose my abiding memory of this conference will be its funereal ambience, the low-key security, the general air of resignation. And if, in 12 months time Labour has secured a jaw-dropping victory well yes I will be happy to be proved wrong. I think those who predict Labour will die at the next election are wrong, too. The truth, I suspect, will be somewhere in between. And we will battle on.......