YEAR OF THE HUSTINGS - AND NOW THERE ARE MORE....

For someone who is basically terrified of speaking in public, 2009 has been a baptism of fire.
To date, three Parliamentary hustings in Keighley and another in Calder Valley. OK I did not win those paticular battles but it was very good experience in overcoming stage fright.
A friend who is a trade union leader gave me the sound advice many months ago that the only way to beat nerves on these occasions is just to keep on keeping on doing it. And, yes, it gets easier. A bit.
Which is just as well because I will be facing some rigorous questioning at the LRC Conference on November 14 when I will be one of four candidates standing for two places on the CLGA slate for the NEC.
I hope this will all be done in a spirit of friendliness and comradeship and I hope that whoever wins will take the LRC forward and work towards a more cohesive and constructive presence on the NEC.
I'm also standing for re-election as LRC Vice-Chair and I hope those who attend our conference will recognise the hard work I've done in the last 12 months at various locations/meetibgs/campaigns and re-elect me so I can carry on building LRC groups across the country and encouraging activists to get involved. Much remains to be done ......

LRC CAMBRIDGE REPORT

In my past year as LRC co Vice-Chair one of the things I have most enjoyed is getting out and about to different parts of the country. I hope, if I'm re-elected, to carry on doing exactly that. Last week I was over in Hazel Grove CLP where we had a frank and fearless debate and I'm up for more of the same if any other CLPs are interested. This report of the Cambridge LRC meeting is on the Socialist Appeal blog. Kelvin Hopkins MP will be at their next meeting .



http://www.socialist.net/labour-left-rallies-in-cambridge.htm

NICK GRIFFIN AND THE BBC

I have veered in the past week between thinking that Nick Griffin's atrocious appearance on Question Time was inexcusable and then, immediately after watching it, believing maybe it might have shown him for what he is. And therefore not such a bad thing after all.
News that the BNP has , allegedly, recruited thousands as a result, was a sobering reminder that "no platform for fascists" might have been the right line after all. I honestly don't know. But the piece below in the Morning Star on-line is a timely reminder of what he really stands for. And how intolerable it is.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/features/Griffin-s-twisted-history

TIME TO STOP THIS PROFITEERING

I was astonished at an event organised by the Co-op Party in Manchester on Saturday to hear the vacillations of a Northern MP on the subject of the privatised utilities and public transport.
Having first asserted that railway re-nationalisation was undo-able he later conceded it was in fact a Good Thing - but could somehow be achieved by the back door as long as it was not officially in Labour's manifesto. The question being WHY on earth would you would not promote a policy bound to be a vote-winner in difficult times .
On privatised utilities, he was similarly wavering, conceding too they should never have been privatised and that people might support their return to public ownership.So why not do it?
It seems to me there are probably dozens of Labour MPs who, given the chance, would put their weight behind the radical policies we need to win back the voters. But are seemingly afraid of being dubbed, as he put it " red-blooded socialists" Or, more likely, given a sound ticking-off from those who would prefer hell to freeze over before they return to democratic socialism. Today's revelations in the Indy over the "big six" energy suppliers show exactly why we have to stop their rank profiteering - which means millions will be living in fuel poverty this winter. And bring the whole lot back into public ownership




http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-demand-inquiry-into-great-energy-swindle-1809415.html

THE FUTURE OF BLOGGING - A MEETING IN HEBDEN BRIDGE

The Calderdale branch of the NUJ is organising a public meeting on Journalism in the Age of New Media and Blogging. I will be chairing the discussion, which will be led by New Media expert Gary Herman and Chris Ratcliffe who runs the Hebweb. It's at the White Lion 7.30pm and all welcome.

I WAS WRONG......

Turns out, if you believe the Guardian, that my nice, liberal thoughts which naively assumed would be common denominator have resulted in being a huge recruiting sergeant for the BNP. I was wrong. So was the BBC. More thoughts later. For now have to go to sleep and get to London tomorrow

HOIST BY HIS OWN REPULSIVE PETARD

I just might have changed my mind about the BBC's decision to allow Nick Griffin on Question Time. Jack Straw was rightly cheered to the rafters as he laid in to this repulsive specimen of humanity and what he stands for. How heartening it was also to see politicians for once speaking from the heart and more or less zero tolerance from the audience for Griffin's racist, homophobic, unacceptable views.
He was inarticulate, incoherent, and my guess is the BNP will not be regarding this as an "early Christmas present" but an unmitigated disaster.
Which is not to say that Labour does not need to get out there in the coming period and expose the BNP's fascist ideology for what it is. Come up with some answers as to why so many of their natural supporters have turned to the extremism of the right. And come up with some policies to stop it. But, by and large, I'm cheered by the expose of Griffin for what he - and his Party - are.
Our task is now to convince the millions who will not have been watching the programme tonight.

FLASHBACK TO 1993

The late John Smith was a moderate man. But in 1993, Labour's election broadcasts , when he was Leader, had a rather more radical edge. See here for an insightful look at just how different things were ( with help from Fry and Laurie) And how things should be in the run-up to the NEXT General Election

http://leap-lrc.blogspot.com/

NICK GRIFFIN

I'm third generation Irish. I can recall my mum telling me how during the 1930's - and later - signs would appear on lodging houses in Manchester saying, "No Irish, No Blacks." Today, the Irish community has been assimilated and is indistinguishable from the indigenous English population ( if there is such a thing) . But 50 years ago, we were subject to the same bile which now spills from the BNP and is targetted at the black community.
Tonight in the pub, by no means a bastion of bigotry, nevertheless much chat from sundry locals about Nick Griffin appearing tomorrow on Question Time. Much was seriously depressing. He "has a point" say people I have thought were decent. Many, it seems, will be watching with anticipatory glee.The ratings are likely to go through the roof- for entrirely the wrong reasons
Then home to Newsnight and Barbara Follett speaking the folly of defending Gordon Brown's call for "British jobs for British workers" as if that were a perfectly axceptable palliative for those obviously already inclined to talk about "them" rather than "us." It is not, as Follett said" reassuring".It is inexcusable rhetoric which has only strengthened their vile outpourings
On Monday, my uncle was buried at the age of 84. He survived the D-day landings, fought the Nazis, was a socialist all his life, and I know he would be horrified at Griffin's appearance tomorrow night. Like, I hope, most of us who know where the horrors of racism can lead and whose families have suffered from it in the past. As far as the present goes, I deplore the BBC's decision to give fascists a platform. And I wish I lived within striking distance of Television Centre to protest.
The notion that the BNP's views are legitimate is abhorrent and it makes me sick to my stomach. The BBC has taken the decision to give them the oxygen of publicity. It is wrong, wrong, wrong.

NOT MUCH TIME FOR CYBERSPACE

I have been traipsing up and down the country at various meetings and tomorrow night I go to speak to Hazel Grove CLP to give a brief talk about the LRC.
I am pretty exhausted, fire-fighting on several fronts with not much time to blog - or inclination, really if I'm honest.
However, things which have cheered me in the past couple of days include Mervyn King's wise words about the disgraceful profiteering of the banks, the CWU's refusal to cave in to Royal Mail bosses so intent on smashing their strike that they bring in 30,000 casual scab workers, and then there was Peter Hain calling on the BBC to ban Nick Griffin.
I hope tomorrow there are thousands outside Television Centre to protest at the shameful inclusion of Griffin as a guest on Question Time. And I hope at some point in the future to regain my enthusiasm for blogging. In the meantime, I will be going to lots of real time events and helping organise a local support group for the CWU.

BILLY, YOU ARE A HERO

The first ever post which I wrote on this blog in 2007 was about Peter Mandelson. It was rather derisory. At that stage, Mandy was out of Government . He is now, effectively, running the country.

Mandelson has condemned the forthcoming strike action by the CWU as "political suicide."

It is a measure of the gulf between the Government and the postal workers that they do not seem to realise that in seemingly condoning Royal Mail's determination to smash the strike ( today the Observer reports 30,000 extra workers being signed up to act as scabs) and the efforts of the union on behalf of their members that they could also be accused of a death wish.

Billy Hayes, hardly one of the most militant trade union leaders, has made comments which of course have been misconstrued by the right-wing media . His point that he was "stronger than Arthur Scargill" was not made to be macho. I think Billy is one of the least egotistical trade union leaders I have ever met.

He was simply pointing out that a 76 per cent vote in favour of industrial action gave him a mandate which Scargill did not arguably have when he called the miners out in 1984.

But battle lines have now been drawn up and the CWU is standing firm - as it should.

At our AGM of the West Yorkshire LRC yesterday we agreed to do all we could to support the CWU locally. On Tuesday at our Branch Labour party meeting, we agreed to donate money to help the strikers.

The tragedy is of course that it seems inevitable, given the course of events in the last 12 months, that the union will disaffiliate from Labour. It will certainly be a course of action which Billy, an "unreconstructed Bennite" and Labour Party loyalist, will find deeply painful. But is it any wonder?

Last week in Cambridge, a postal worker told us how his pension had been reduced to ashes, wages cut and jobs threatened due to Royal Mail's refusal to listen to union demands . Conciliation has also been ruled out by the Royal Mail bosses who take six-figure salariesand expect the lowest-paid to take the rap.

So now we have the prospect of a re-run of 1984 - the difference being that this time it is a Labour Government opposing the interests of the class it was set up to represent.

I hope ordinary members of the Labour Party will take a very different view. As we did in 1984, when then Leader Neil Kinnock refused to give unconditional backing to the NUM.

WEST YORKSHIRE LRC AGM

The West Yorkshire LRC AGM is on Saturday October 17 at the Trades Club, Hebden Bridge. We will be making nominations for Executive and National Committee positions - and discussing the last 12 months of activity. As Secretary of the local LRC, can I thank all those who have supported the Labour Left in 2009 and I hope to see some of you at 1pm. New supporters welcome! Our task in the coming months is to ensure we do as much as we can to stave off the likelihood of a Tory Government both in the Labour Party and the wider trade union movement.
In the south-east, comrades are already mobilising to support John McDonnell in his campaign for re-election. I'm sure that in the North we will be doing likewise for MPs under threat.

COMRADES LIKE THESE ARE NEVER FORGOTTEN

I've had a really sad week. I was brought up in an Irish superstition household where one death means there will always be three. And. having heard in the past week of two deaths, tonight I learned that one of the Labour Party's most stalwart campaigners and someone who was a real comrade and friend has also died.

Joan Abrams made you proud to still be in the Labour Party. She was a Labour campaigner for decades, at last year's Convention Of The Left., at last year's LRC Conference. And no doubt she would have made it down to London ( as she did in 2008) on November 14 for the next of our AGMs. She was a socialist through and through. But Joan is no longer with us.

Coincidentally, I'm going to Joan's CLP in Hazel Grove next week where I was asked a bit ago to be a speaker. The only thing I can do in her memory is stand up for the values she believed in. Values she was expounding only a few weeks ago when she gave a lead-off to the COL about the Co-op Party.

Today, by chance, I happened upon a book about Bob Cryer, former MP in the Keighley constituency where I tried to stand earlier this year as PPC. Reading the testimonies from people like Tony Benn , Alan Simpson and Alice Mahon made me even more determined to stand up for the values which Bob, a founder member of the Campaign Group, believed in all his life.

I quote from a tribute paid by Alan Rye, a former secretary of the Keighley CLP.Written 15 years ago, his words still mean so much to all of us in the labour movement.Because in an age where so many Mps have let us down , they are particularly pertinent.

"Bob anticipated many issues which Parliament, Press and public woke up to only later. Two examples are MPs' business interests, and the need for public control and ownership of water. As for MPs who hold directorships, continue running private businesses or work "on the side" as journalists or lawyers, he never had any time for them, and some sadly, were Labour members. Bob declared from the time he entered Parliament that he would devote himself to the job full-time.

He went further, calling for a register of MPs' business interests, long before the House of Commons itself voted to do just that. And he long ago warned of the dangers of corruption and the deceit of Parliament and the public by unscrupulous MPs and Ministers who saw that large profits could be made through their association with the area's industry.

Bob told the House that if there were a register of MP's interests he would be delighted to declare his - five £10 shares in the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Company."

THE WEEK FROM HELL

Regular readers may be wondering why I have blogged little this week- the answer is that in one week have had serious worries over health of my dad, a death in the family of another close relative, more bad news re journalism commitments, and in past 24 hours a seven-hour slog there and back to Cambridge by bus for official launch of LRC ( thanks for a good evening in a bad week) in my old university town.
Oh, and if all that weren't enough, boring domestic issues involving flooding and horrendous expense of a plumber - coming Thursday.
I take comfort in the thought that weeks don't come much worse than this - but being superstitious am not going to tempt fate by thinking that's necessarily the case.
If all I had to worry about was paying back expenses, and why incidentally are MPs whingeing about this, then things would be one whole lot better.Most MPs, frankly, live in a parallel universe to the rest of us .And they should pay back what they owe.

MASS CANVAS IN HAYES AND HARLINGTON - RE-ELECT JOHN McDONNELL!

With only months to go until the General Election, it's absolutely vital that left activists rally round the socialist MPs who are at risk of losing their seats. So well done to Stroppy and comrades for organising mass canvassing every other Sunday in Hayes and Harlington. Starting Sunday October 18. Details on the Facebook group below.



http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=160143531011&mid=13e5a3bG1fabec62G3b7697bG7

NO DEFENCE FOR THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE

I was not best pleased, en route to see my dad who is 89 and not in the best of health, to see my home city of Manchester hijacked my fascist bastards who gridlocked the place and ensured it took 90 minutes to traverse six miles on the bus . Complete chaos. What the hell were GMP thinking of to allow such mayhem for the sake of a few neo-Nazi nutters? How many thousands of pounds did it cost?
I met a woman at the bus-stop seriously worried about her 19-year-old daughter who was engaging in the demo against the fascists.I'm glad people were saying what they thought but frankly Manchester should never have allowed this march to happen.

THE SPECTRE OF IRAQ RETURNS TO HAUNT BLAIR

As Peter Mandelson has now made more comebacks than Frank Sinatra, presumably the Blairs thought it was their time to return to the stage. Amid talk of an imminent EU Presidency, Tony and Cherie returned to grace a service for the war dead at St Paul's. But one grieving parent wasn't having it, denouncing Blair as a war criminal.
If the Blairs imagine two years on the fat cat lecture circuit - and countless homes funded by their travels - have rehabilitated them then yesterday's incident was a sharp reminder that people's memories are not that short. And that the waste of thousands of lives in an unnecessary and illegal war will not be erased from the history books.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219241/Tony-Blair-makes-surprise-appearance-Queen-pays-tribute-Iraq-veterans-St-Pauls.html

SO NOW WE KNOW .....

Returned home last night from Manchester to see Paxman beating up Osborne on Newsnight. One can only hope the Tories have unilaterally shot themselves in the foot with their risible mantra that "We're All In It Together."
As is patently clear, those at the top will suffer very little pain from the policy horrors being outlined by the Conservatives. Public sector workers, pensioners, the low-paid, and those currently receiving tax credits ( to be abolished) will all be targetted and unemployment will rocket beyond Thatecherite levels.
Surreal going through the city to see Tories strutting around and drunk with the prospect of imminent power. I hope I won't be shot at dawn for this but over a coffee near Manchester Central I asked some young suits what they thought of the city and their chances in the General Election. They had just been told by a taxi-driver that no-one in Manchester supported them - which is a positive I suppose.
Their risk strategy of spelling out what a Tory Govt will mean can hopefully be a wake-up call to those who thought Cameron was Blair's representative on earth and that "compassionate Conservatism" was anything other than a PR stunt.
Labour's only chance, as Seumas Milne points out in the Guardian, is to pose a real alternative to their slash and burn strategy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/07/conservatives-in-europe-latvia

GREATER MANCHESTER LRC

Greater Manchester LRC meets tomorrow night at the Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, 7pm. Items on agenda include fothcoming AGM and Labour Party Conference. I'll be there and hope others can make it too.
Building The Resistance, the forthcoming AGM, will be having a fringe lunchtime meeting on building regional LRCs . And we're hoping to organise a meeting for regional LRCs in the North on November 7. Possibly in York. If anyone wants to find out more or is interested they can e-mail me SsPre2@aol.com

TIME TO RAGE AGAINST THE TORIES

I've just been reading ( a bit late) some of the responses to the Convention Of The Left in Brighton over at Socialist Unity. I think a lot of the comments were unfair, and wholly negative. Yes, the event could have been bigger, the demographic was a bit narrow, but overall it was successful in bringing together disparate left groups to have a discussion in a friendly way and I believe it will be the base for joint working on issues down in the south.
This spirit of comradeliness seems to irk some folk. Which frankly mystifies me. And, speaking as a white, middle-aged socialist I get a bit sick and tired of people having a pop at events lagely comprised of the above as if somehow being over 50 were a crime against humanity. Would you prefer us not to turn up at all?
What also disturbed me were suggestions that that the Sunday demonstration, which frankly was hijacked by the SWP chanting inane and sometimes offensive slogans, was a better way of demonstrating solidarity and support. For what? I could not help asking as a woman next to me hysterically screamed "Gordon Brown, you are scum" over and over again .
I was not alone in regarding this as childish, disturbing and wrong. Which is why I sidestepped away from the banshee-like wailing.
The original point of that demo, convened by several unions including my own, was NOT to "Rage Against New Labour" but to march on the theme of "Jobs, Education,Peace." A constructive message which sadly got rather lost in the name-calling.
One of the many attributes which people like Tony Benn have always had is a refusal to downgrade political disagreement to personal abuse. To use the cliche, policies, not personalities."
And when you get alleged socialists chanting "Labour Out" with undisguised glee then you have to ask what planet they are living on. Or if they actually care what happens to the working-class in their zeal to out-left each other.
Maybe there are some on the very far left who do not care whether we get a Tory or a Labour Government - for those of us in the Labour Left I hope the position is very different.
This Government has scored own goal after own goal in its quest to keep Middle England on board and yes there are some Labour MPs who are indistinguishable from Tories. They remain in the minority.
In the past two years on this blog I have repeatedly said that the labour movement, and the Labour Party, is far more than New Labour. And that calls for a new Party are a blind alley.
Yes I'm angry that the Government did not see it was alienating its core supporters with much of its policy agenda. But we have just a few months to try and win that back.
By putting pressure on from below, getting the TUC to campaign on the Peoples Charter, and killing the myth of "compassionate Conservatism" , we can do far more than tarring all Labour Mps with the same brush, and helping the Tories by standing no-hope candidates.
The SWP's tactic of righteous but bilious anger is "a tale of sound and fury, signifying nothing" other than iconoclastic , nihilistic rage which will only help Cameron to an even larger majority.
The approach of the Convention, to work together on the issues which unite us, rather than open up unnecessary divisions, is sane, honest and far more worthy of support.

NEW WEBSITE FOR THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER

One of the positives from the TUC was its formal backing for the People's Charter- a massive boost which should make the task of building support around the policies so much easier. Here's the new website - with information on how to get involved.
http://www.thepeoplescharter.com/

BUILDING THE RESISTANCE IN THE LRC

Chilling, isn't it, to watch the Tories in Manchester? Chilling because we know that in a year's time these chumps ( to use Mandelson's favourite, ahem, swear-word ) are likely to be in charge of the country - and Labour will be consigned to Opposition.
Such thoughts are not defeatist. They are realistic.And maybe our only hope of escaping this fate worse than death is to draw up the battle-lines now and make it clear what the difference is between us and the Tories. The problem is of course that cuts are also on Labour's agenda - what a difference it would make if we came out fighting instead of bowing to the demands of the CBI and IMF.
The LRC AGM on November 14 has the theme of Building The Resistance. And where we can, we MUST campaign against the threats we face to working people and the trade union movement.
Internal victories like having grassroots control of the NPF will mean precisely nothing if we're in the throes of a Tory Government. So in the months ahead it is absolutely vital that we campaign to retain as many Labour MPs as we can. promote socialist policies in and outside the Labour Party, and do not get so pre-occupied with navel-gazing that we lose sight of the bigger, terrifying picture.
On Wednesday night I'll be talking to the Greater Manchester LRC on the implications, politically, post-Labour conference and the week after I'm going over to Hazel Grove CLP to do something similar.
In my year as LRC co Vice-Chair, I've done my best to encourage others to mobilise and form local groups to give LP members a bit of hope that there is a progressive alternative. I hope to be re-elected in November to carry on that work.
The juggernaut of a Conservative Government is staring us straight in the face and now is not the time to abandon the radical policy changes we've called for in recent years. Policies like nationalisng the banks under democratic control, taking back control of the private utilities, defending union activists in struggle, could yet save us. Platitudes won't do it. Principles might. Now is the time... to come to the aid of our Party. And the Mps who are now fighting for their political lives. Here's what one of them, Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, has to say on the matter
http://l-r-c.org.uk/news/story/five-steps-to-the-return-of-labour-jeremy-corbyn/

DEPENDENCY CULTURE? I DON'T THINK SO

If anyone were in any doubt that the Tories remain the same old, same old, then Cameron's announcement today on welfare benefits should remove any uncertainty.
His plans to slash incapacity benefit by a third are clearly just the tip of an iceberg which will mean the rich getting richer and the poor - well, why should they care?
There's a certain personal irony of timing in the fact that, as we confront the prospect of a Tory Govt and what it will mean, for the first time in 25 years I've put in a claim for benefits - and I can assure anyone who thinks, as they might if they read the Daily Mail, that the jobless and low-paid are living off the fat of the land they are wrong.
The only reason I found out I was entitled to Working Tax Credit was via a conversation with someone who knew the system's labrynthine complexity - which as the LRC has said for years saves the Govt billions as many others don't realise either. In fact, a couple of months ago I was told I was entitled to nothing.
So, if there is anyone else out there struggling on their own on a low income and over 50 then it's true the State will help you for decades of NI and tax .
In my case, £38 a week. Which at least will pay a couple of bills.But that's it. God help us if the Tories get in because no doubt they will scrap this, too.
The problem is that people like James Purnell and other colleagues on the New Labour wing of the Party , which backed the iniquitous Welfare Reform Bill, allowed Middle England to think that millions were on Easy Street and should be punished for their "crime" in being unable to find or be capable of work. The Tories, clearly, plan to reap electoral dividends from this wicked fiction.

THANKS .....

To all on Facebook who have posted birthday wishes today. ........it's much appreciated. I have had no time to celebrate as as usual I have been running round like a headless chicken but I will be having a meal with friends tonight followed by drinks in the estimable Fox and Goose, Hebden Bridge. Then back to London tomorrow for a Labour Briefing editorial board......thanks also to those who posted or txtd messages about the Radio 4 coverage of the LRC fringe the other day.

A MAJOR VICTORY FOR LABOUR PARTY DEMOCRACY

I've spent a couple of days trying to track this one down - and the VERY good news is that Labour Party Conference withstood serious pressure from the leadership and has backed a change in the way in which the National Policy Forum is elected.
I know that the trade unions were being arm-twisted for days before the vote on Wednesday afternoon. But they stood firm.
So now instead of delegates at Conference being the only ones who can vote on who represents us, we will all have a say in who gets onto the NPF. This is an issue which groups like CLPD, STLP and the LRC have been fighting for for a couple of years. It may end the farce by which dissenting views on the NPF have been effectively wiped out.
OMOV for the NEC has allowed the left of centre grassroots candidates to get four out of the six CLP places. Now it's time to take the fight to the NPF. And fight for the policies we need to change direction. This is not, as some have billed it , a return to the "bad old days" of internal strife. It may indeed herald a return to the "good old days" when Labour policy-making had input from all wings of the Party.

See link below for details.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8282449.stm

A CONVOCATION OF CASSANDRAS?

It's a lovely turn of phrase. the kind of thing I used to dream up in my days as a Diarist for the Manchester Evening News. However, today's piece in the Guardian on "Labour's Death Row" was a bit of a misrepresentation of the LRC "Not The Labour Party Conference" rally held on Monday night.
I see no point in pretending this was a major triumph. We got about 60 activists out in a very large ballroom where in previous years the numbers would have been in the hundreds.
The same was true of ALL events this year at Conference. Attendance was down, the mood was sombre.But unlike some events, the LRC rally told the truth. And it's dire.
For at least the past two years, and probably more, we have warned of a Government "sleepwalking to disaster" because it refuses to change direction.
Repeatedly, the LRC has outlined the policies needed to bring back voters. The need for honesty. The challenge of admitting some things were wrong - and that they needed to be put right. The People's Charter, endorsed at the TUC Congress, would be a bold step away from the likelihood of a Tory Government.
Instead, Conference saw speaker after speaker claiming we had a "great story to tell" and that somehow we could win back voters' trust by repeating the same tired old mantras. And hoping that past policies would somehow transmogrify into present day successes.
But the game is up. And, much as I loved the pictures of Tony Woodley tearing up the Sun on stage, the truth is that the union leaders have colluded in the conspiracy of denial which is seemingly, inevitably, leading to a General Election defeat.
As Mark Serowtka said on Monday night, Gordon Brown could still come back from the brink of disaster by taking on the bankers, rallying round the public sector workers, scrapping the Sun-led agenda , and fessing up that it's time to turn left in the interests of the vast majority of working-class people. Instead, the spin doctors thought that wheeling on the wife to tell everyone how great Gordon is would somehow turn things round.
Now the vile Sun newspaper has ditched Labour, perhaps those in the Downing Street bunker will realise it is five minutes to midnight and they have one last chance to claw back from the abyss. If they don't, as Alan Simpson put it, Gordon Brown is a "dead man walking" And in 12 months time, when we gather in Manchester, the numbers will be even more decimated - and we will be in Opposition