Brown's press conference: live blog

1615, Peter Hoskin: Welcome to the Coffee House team's live blog of Brown's press conference.  You can watch proceedings by clicking here.  Expect much ado about Mandy...

1622, PH: Fascinating footage, so far, of two unattended lecturns.  Word is we can expect Brown and Darling to appear in around 10 minutes.

1624, PH: Scratch that - they've appeared now.  Brown kicks off: "These are new times ... we're living through the first truly-international, financial crisis".  He says his reshuffle will help deal with these new times. 

1626, PH: Brown outlines a reorganisation of government to deal with the economy.  A new economic council will...

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Brown's Cabinet in full

Who would have thought it?  The expected "minor reshuffle" developed into the one of the most headline-grabbing reshuffles that you're ever likely to see, and all thanks to Peter Mandelson's astonishing return to Cabinet.  I'm sure that would have been towards the forefront of Brown's mind - to wrest the news agenda back from Cameron, and to maybe dull any post-conference bounce for the Tories.  But there'll be other reasons too: bridge-building with the Blairites and upping the experience-quotient in government among them.  But will it all back-fire for Brown? ...

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Post-conference poll boost for the Tories

The latest Guardian / ICM poll records the slightest of post-conference poll boosts for the Tories.  They're on 42 percent (up 1 on a poll conducted last week); Labour are on 30 percent (down 2); and the Lib Dems are on 17 percent (down 1).  Given that the financial turmoil threatened to make the Birmingham gathering a non-event, I imagine Team Cameron will be happy with this modest upwards shift - although they'll rightly be waiting for a fuller picture to emerge, as more opinion polls are released throughout October.

P.S. Brown's called a press conference for 1615 today.  We'll be live-blogging it on Coffee House - stay tuned.

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The Mandelson backlash

Bringing back Peter Mandelson and sidelining Damian McBride has not gone down well with some of the more hard-core Brownites. Kevin Maguire savages the Mandelson appointment, arguing that it makes Brown look weak, weak, weak:

If Gordon Brown hopes people have forgotten who Peter Mandelson was he will be badly mistaken. Both will hate the ridicule coming their way. To turn to a figure who personified a lack of trust in politicians is a grave error. Should we start placing bets on Lord Mandy's third Cabinet resignation?

What other surprises

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Justin Forsyth's promotion is a smart move

If the reports about Justin Forsyth are true, this is a smart move. Forsyth, a man with a background in international development, is one of the cleverest people in Number Ten and also one of the most courteous. I travelled with him on the Brown trip to Camp David and the UN last year as he was busy with the Darfur resolution, and he was the very model of what a Downing Street official should be. It was striking, even then, that the PM trusted him go to the back of the...

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