The conference was dubbed “Operation Fight back”, despite this the atmosphere was subdued, with some commentators comparing it to a wake. However, there was no doubt that this conference was the beginning of a fight for survival.
The fightback was not helped by the Sun newspaper, switching political allegiance on day two of the conference. Defiant minsters stated that they would not be bullied by the press and the repeated the mantra “people decide elections, not newspapers.”
Mandelson’s speech was the highlight of the conference for many delegates, putting Operation Fight back into words with his usual humour and charisma. It was clear the speech invigorated the party; he said "If I can come back, we can come back". Though his speech did become somewhat overshadowed by end of the week, with him referring the Sun newspaper as “chumps”.
Interestingly, Andrew Marr used his Sunday chat show to ask the PM about prescription drug use, a rumour that has been doing the rounds for some time now, the PM rebuffed the question with ease.
The centrepiece speech was of course left to the PM, in wide ranging and policy laden speech, he listed Labour achievements and announced a swathe of new policy and formally abandoned compulsory ID cards for British citizens, to great cheers from party faithful. Other headline grabbing measures included a referendum on a proportional representation voting system, local authorities will be given the power to ban 24-hour drinking licences
The PM finished with, "Never, never stop believing ... We are the Labour Party and our abiding duty is to stand, and fight, and win."
No comments:
Post a Comment