James Forsyth James Forsyth

Darling’s speech: updates from the conference hall

1204: The hall is relatively full for Darling. He starts off by talking about the big choice that faces the country, saying we have learned in the last year what a difference a government can make.

1206: Darling is trying to do the populist banker bashing, but his delivery is not right for it. From the right speaker, this could have been a real crowd pleaser.

1209: Darling keeps paying tribute to Brown’s global leadership. He says the UK economy will be growing again by the turn of the year.

1211: The usual litany of supposed Tory errors comes now.  Darling talks about the need for the anabling hand of government to go alongside the invisible hand of government.

1213: The clapping here is really poor. Even the minimum wage, normally a Labour crowd pleaser, gets only a brief round of applause.

1214: Darling says debt has risen but the rise was justified.

1217: Inheritance tax gets a mention.

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