Brown's success

Jeremy D

God, I thought it was just awful. It really just goes to show the great gulf there is between 'us' and 'them'...

GS London

Woe is thee, Spectator. The media is still by and large of the left, and as such anything - anything at all - will work. One anticipates round praise from the Beeb, silence from Paxo, and half-hearted scrutiny (disappointingly, but realistically) from Snow.

Impartiality left when the BBC painted it's newsroom red.

James

I'm a Tory and wanted to hate the speech.

The content of the speech was bad - but let's face it who cares. The mainstream news will pick up a few snippets and the public will remain none-the-wiser that Brown intends to spend, spend, spend.

Given all that - I think Brown probably got the speech right. The tone wasn't bad and it was much easier to listen to and watch than many of his previous speeches.

He will benefit from low expectations and the fact it was better than Milliband's speech. He will get a slight boost in the polls as a result and there was nothing particularly negative that the mainstream media will lead with.

All this is a side-show and he will be humbled again in the by-election.

Max Kaye

Why ask the acolytes? Listen to the public reaction (not just on this and like-minded blogs): it ain't pretty!

Brown has been politically dead for months. A jolt of conference electricity has galvanised him like an electrocuted frog in a biology lesson. And to similar long term efficacy.

maas101

A success by who? The party faithful at the conference surely. Dyed in the wool labour supporters elsewhere probably. But did it reach out to the disaffected labour vote or even swing a few undecideds? I have not seen a single comment anywhere from someone who has had their mind changed by the speech. With Labour so far behind in the polls Gordon should have been reaching out to those who were not already intending to vote Labour. I didn't see that and for that fact alone it has to go down as a wasted opportunity.

Labour are still heading for electoral meltdown and today has not changed a thing.

Thomas Cussans

It is irrelevant what the Labour delegates thought, most of them anyway desperate to pretend that theirs is not a party in the last stages of terminal collapse and that their esteemed leader is not universally despised and derided.

It is the country at large that counts. You need only look at the comments on almost any Guardian article to know that Brown's goose is not merely well and truly cooked but has been reduced to little more than a sad and sorry-looking cinder, a tiny whiff of smoke curling from it.

He is not even dead meat any longer.

Austin Barry

In the fetid, onanistic ambiance of the conference hall, given what we know of crowd psychology, Brown's speech may well have seemed inspired even to cynical hacks. But tomorrow morning, he'll still be Brown and we'll still be buggered, so nothing has changed. It was the last fizz of the squib.

duncan robertson

u cant buck the market
and the stock market is due deep south in the big picture
and brown will carry the can
the public will get more angry as stocks and house prices move relentlessly lower
and jobs get thinner on the ground
shortorlong.com

Mark

The surviving members of the Labour party who are prepared to spend a weekday or two at conference are no indication of the general public. Same goes for the other two parties, but in Labour's case all that is left is the fanatic core and the union delegates.

Silent Hunter

'....and have to report that Brown went down well.....'

Aye! And so did the Titanic!

simon s

Brown looks like he has done enough to stay as pm to next election. But that means his party will carry the can for the recession - as he was chancellor of the housing bubble.

Also if Cameron's speech is good and he nails Brown as architect of the boom and bust - Brown will be made to look pretty ordinary. Note how Brown didn't mention 'boom and bust' today.

GeoffH

It was so vacuous and mawkish, vomit-inducing, and plain insulting to the voters' intelligence that I had to give up.

How any so-called journalist could give it 9/10 is beyond me.

jsfl

We're still doomed under Brown.....One speech means nothing. In fact it just not in him to make the right choices for the country.

DM

Fraser - People don't like him, or respect him, so it doesn't matter what he says. They have made their minds up already. You are reading too much into it.
Even the party faithful put more weight on what opinion polls say than what their dear leader says. Brown will be chucked out before Christmas. He is fooling himself that this week is going to make any difference to the opinion polls.

Charlie T

Zanulabour will probably have an opinion poll conference bounce.But after they lose the Glenrothes by-election Gordon will be back in the brown stuff once again amd once again the plotters will be all over the media.
Even the terminal get their moments of remission but he and they are finished.

Mr Pooter

I have only skimmed it so I may be mistaken, however I did not see one single reference to any notion of freedom or civil liberties. Is this correct?

EyeSee

It is case of Brown still being the Leader of the Opposition in word and action, drumming up the usual Labour stunts of giving small snippits of our money back when they are under pressure. In fact whether we trust a 'novice' (as Blair was of course and the current numpty as Chancellor) is irrelevant. The point is we have a bunch of self serving incompetents in power, obsessed with their pay, pensions and expenses and little else. A massive slice of our problems today from our weakness as a financial power to his collusion in the deaths of our troops, is down to Labour and in particular 11 years of Gordon Brown. If you were invited to vote in an election tomorrow, would you vote for a burglar? Because Labour is Burglar Brown and a spineless, witless pack of ne'er do wells surrounding him.

Richard Holloway

Excellent news that it went down well with the Labour party. Just what was needed when it looked like he may have been pushed.
The rest of the country on the other hand. I'll be waiting for the first opinion poll after this, but I doubt it will be much different. He'll be in to the end now and my god it's going to be a great time to kick them out of office.

Emil

Haven't heard as much spontaneous clapping after every sentence since IDS's final conference speech.

David C

Mr Pooter:
Lest you are fearful, Our Glorious (and Courageous) Leader is still embarked on the course which will see the state enhance our wellbeing, nay our very existences.
Be assured, the community is at your shoulder day and night, ready to aid and guide you.
What need have you to worry about matters such as Civil Liberties when the power of the state stands guard over these abstracts on your behalf?
As for the notion of Freedom, surely all freedom is relative and in these troubled times this outmoded concept could be considered more than a little dangerous.

But rest easy. Big Brother is, as always, on the job!

Wight Tory

A great speech for the Tories, everybody knows that was a speach to save himself first and the party second, the coutries already on its way to EU.....

No amount of lefty spin will make this speech anything more than that. The British (not the country GB kept refering to) will look throught this, and even when he mentioned the 10p issue, he still couldn't say sorry could he...

Travis Bickle

I was listening to clips of his speech (well almost the whole bloody thing actually) on radio 4 on way home , did he really say that he "didn't realise" that the rasing of 10p tax band to 20p would make people worse off?

And this is the "only" man in existence who can save our economy????? We're Donalded.

Polly's mum

I am still waiting for the true roll of Brownies.
I myself lost count after the first few minutes, But "labour invented the NHS" was one that resonated with me.

Mr Pooter

Thank you for your kind assurances David C. I shall rest easy now that I know Big Brother wants only for me to be happy and safe. Is there an official place where I can repent of my possessing a NO2ID car sticker, a worn out & out of date copy of Harry Street's 'Freedom, the Individual and the Law' and my once having been a member of Liberty?

David C

Room 101

Dirty Euro

It was good speech that moved me. When he spoke of how he nearly went blind and the NHS saved him from going blind. Who could feel that he was nearly driven to tears by that thought and why he supports the NHS.

mitch

“no time for a novice” 5 words in an hour and that's good? that's it one line.
Not enough by a country mile.

What stunt will gordon pull during the Tory conference then?

Athesius the Facilitator

All this talk about the strength of his speach blaa blaa blaa is a waste of everyones time and effort. He's a dead duck because nobody likes him. His speach was rubbish but it wouldn't have made any difference if it was the best speach the world has ever heard. It's him. Even the lass that does the cleaning at work can see that he's flawed and she cares not a jot who's in office. In fact I mentioned Tony Blairs name in conversation one day, it was 2004, and she said who's Tony Blair. And meant it. But bless her cotton socks she can name the whole cast of Eastenders.

Athesius the Facilitator

All this talk about the strength of his speach blaa blaa blaa is a waste of everyones time and effort. He's a dead duck because nobody likes him. His speach was rubbish but it wouldn't have made any difference if it was the best speach the world has ever heard. It's him. Even the lass that does the cleaning at work can see that he's flawed and she cares not a jot who's in office. In fact I mentioned Tony Blairs name in conversation one day, it was 2004, and she said who's Tony Blair. And meant it. But bless her cotton socks she can name the whole cast of Eastenders.

DB

"So when he promises to legislate to end child poverty – as if that will achieve a single thing"

Oh, but it will - it's a scorched earth measure. Enact legislation to require the next government pursue some onerous targets and associated obligations to report and announce how it will act upon them - and you've boxed a future Tory Government into a corner. An attempt to strike down the legislation will be a symbolic mark of Tory "nastiness".

The Laughing Cavalier

In markets this is known as "the dead cat bounce".

Neil Turner

The media's obsession with what is "said" is misleading. The British public live in a world where political deeds are "done", and it has destroyed our very British way of life. Brown's speech changed nothing because it is mere words. It does seem that the media and politicians love to elevate rhetoric over deeds.

I guess many people feel like me - unrepresented by the government, unheard by the media.

A classic case is described by Adam Boulton's extract from his book on how NuLab tried to bully him into retracting the Prescott Punch story. (see http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Truth-Behind-That-Prescott-Punch-Sky-Serialises-Adam-Boulton-Book-Tonys-Ten-Years/Article/200809415104803?lpos=Politics_First_Home_Page_Feature_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15104803_Truth_Behind_That_Prescott_Punch%3A_Sky_Serialises_Adam_Boulton_Book_Tonys_Ten_Years)

My question is, as a newsworthy story of great public interest, why was this intimidation from NuLab's spin warriors not reported fully at the time ?

The sooner they are unmasked the better

Fairness for all ? I don't think so

Thortung

@Dirty Euro
It moved me too. I was filled with a pressing urge to defecate.