This will not be a Labour conference. It is Gordon’s one-man show

It will be, for Gordon Brown, a sweet irony. For years he has longed to address Labour conference as its leader. Now, when it is finally his turn, he can no longer do so — at least not in the way that he had foreseen. His mission is to stand at the podium in Bournemouth as a national leader, a statesman who has transcended tribalism and soars above party political divides. He no longer wants to be simply chieftain of the tribe gathered in front of him but a kind of father figure encompassing Labour, Tory and everyone else.

His aim is also to stage the most choreographed party conference for years. Just as the Dorset police will check every drain for a bomb, the Prime Minister has been meticulously sweeping the political landscape for any hidden explosive devices. Cabinet members have been sent a blunt message from No. 10: This is Not Your Show. No grandstanding, backbiting or union-baiting. There will be no voting on ‘contemporary motions’, the topics traditionally selected by unions to embarrass Tony Blair. Once, these gestural darts aimed at Blair appealed to Mr Brown’s sense of mischief. Now he will tolerate nothing which threatens his core message from the conference — that Labour is a party united.

The Prime Minister will scarcely need to spell out that this is a pre-election conference, although he will doubtless put his party on a ‘war footing’ in some headline-friendly fashion. Almost all the activists believe this will be their final annual gathering before Labour goes into battle for a fourth term, and will behave accordingly. So expect a sharp contrast from the raucous sectarian battle waged between Blairites and Brownites over the past 13 Labour conferences. Bournemouth will be perfunctory, sedate and lacking in epic tension.

Instead, it will be a gathering to hear a new Brownite gospel.