Labour party conference: Bloggers’ views

Manchester’s political bloggers get stuck into the Labour Party Conference. Here’s my pick of posts so far.
“Why oh why oh why can’t people on the platform at political meetings notice when the audience has lost the will to live? Saturday’s Socialist Campaign Group fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference was held in a sweltering room at the Manchester Mechanics’ Institute. Comrades were already tired from listening to ministers talk nonsense all day, scurrying round the Convention of the Left, and marching against war. As the crowd shrunk and people started fanning themsleves frantically with copies of the conference timetable the platform grew!” Action without theory.

Politoholic has his own ideas about what Nick Clegg is describing so expansively here! Other caption suggestions welcome below.
“No plotter is more tragic than Graham Stringer, the former Manchester City Council leader who led the city as it began its incredible regeneration, but is now infamous as the first Labour MP to call for Brown to resign. Stringer wasn’t there last night, but he was the butt of many jokes and is reduced to being described on the BBC as one of those MPs you’ve probably never heard of. When this chapter of the book is finished, Graham Stringer and his co-conspirators will find themselves forever sidelined.” Stephen Newton’s diary.
“Gordon is fighting back at last. His interview with Andrew Marr yesterday recognised some of his own failings, for once, and his argument that his long period in charge of the money, mixing with the best financial brains internationally made him the best person to clear up the current mess, did carry some credibility. Promising to crackdown on City bonuses will play well too, with his lefties.” Skipper .
“The inevitable conclusion? It’s rather odd, isn’t it, that if the boy David seals the deal, this tendency-cum-gang will have scored another triumph, just as their essential approach is revealed to be so out of step with the times? It’s another example, perhaps, of those quixotic historical forces that seem to be ensuring that just as the Bush government nationalises financial institutions and even ardent free-marketeers talk about a new phase of history, the next chancellor will be that well-known interventionist George Osborne.” John Harris, Guardian’s Comment is Free.
If you’ve been blogging the conference, let me know and I’ll update here. ( Note, scurrilous OK, libellous not!)