Will Brown’s conference speech be a mea culpa?

Jackie Ashley’s column is, as always, well worth reading this morning. Perhaps, the most significant thing in it is the suggestion that Gordon Brown might admit to his own mistakes at conference:

“Brown, who has been talking a lot to former Blair advisers, is said to be drafting a speech that will go further than he has ever done before to admit personal failings and explain why he wants to stay in office, even pushing ahead with reforms he used to oppose. We’ll see. He is said to be deeply frustrated by his own performance, and ready to listen to people he used to dismiss out of hand.”

I’ve long been convinced that before Brown can even contemplate a recovery strategy he needs to apologise to the public and ask for a second chance. I suspect, however, that he has left it too late; a frank admission of his failings now runs the risk of being seen as confirmation that he is ‘a loser’.