To the Conference hall for the first, and almost certainly last time this year, for Ed’s speech, with all the apprehension of a parent watching their child in a Nativity play. Have the hotel room rehearsals paid off? Will he make it through without fluffing his lines? We have to wait until page 3 for the first sustained applause. We’ll have to wait a lot longer before we discover whether his plea for trust with the economy is heard beyond Conference.
Like everyone he is outraged by the recent riots, but manages to refrain from describing the kids who took part as ‘feral’, instead praising the ‘young people with brooms’ who came out the next morning to help clean up. ‘Young people with brooms’ ! A collective raising of the eyebrows, perhaps in the hope of a Harry Potter fly-past.
Silence as Ed’ praises Eighties tax-cuts and the Right to Buy, but by page 17 he’s back on track and announces a policy. Government contracts will only be awarded to companies who offer decent apprenticeships. Excellent. Towards the end of his speech Ed is finding his feet. A joke featuring the line ‘the computer says No’ would have been delivered with comic flair by Blair, complete with funny voice. But the laughter would have drowned out all belief and meaning. Ed is right to stick to being himself, and by the end of this speech we are finally beginning to find out who that is, although the final over-annunciated talk about ‘bargains’, (the word was used 6 times in one paragraph) does make it sound as though he would like to turn Britain into a Poundshop.
On the way to the Tribune Rally, I am impressed to see Christine Blower manning the NUT stand in the exhibition hall. A few hours giving away pencils should be compulsory for all Trade Union General Secretaries.
The Rally itself was a feast of thought provoking speeches. Emily Thornberry’s diatribe against Tory gerrymandering deserved a fringe event all to itself. Definitely an issue that needs to be placed at the heart of a national debate. Ed Balls ‘warmed-up’ nicely for Tom Watson who is deservedly enjoying his moment, and then up-stepped my fellow Tribune columnist Lisa Nandy to deliver a barnstorming performance at the podium. For me her speech, recalling a young Barbara Castle was the most believable ten minutes of Conference. All in all an excellent few days. Never in the years that I have been attending conference have we been so welcomed by our host city. From waiting staff, to train drivers (and even a policeman) it seems that Liverpool is anxious for a Labour party victory. Now it’s up to us to convince the rest of the country that we deserve it.
CG
