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Whine and cheese at Labour parties

Katherine Baldwin — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:20:47 +0000

Gordon Brown could test drive his latest crackdown on excessive drinking on his home turf. At Labour’s annual conference in Bournemouth, the wine starts flowing at lunchtime fringe meetings and the parties and bars are packed until the early hours. The bar at Marriott Highcliff hotel is the place to be once all the parties empty out. The booze keeps flowing there until after 3 am. If delegates are lucky, some talented piano player will liven up the proceedings with an old-fashioned singalong.

Fringe meetings - unless they can boast a big-name speaker - are a flop without free booze or a good plate of bangers and mash, and parties get a bad name when they run out of wine.

No such hiccups at Tuesday night’s News International bash. As usual, it pulled in all the big names from media and government but it was guest list only - and no arguments. Uninvited journalists hovered around the entrance, hoping to slip in on the coat-tails of more illustrious colleagues or as part of the entourage of Sarah Brown. Without success. There was to be no gatecrashing at this party and the disgruntled journalists left off the list found themselves jostling for position by the door with a retinue of assorted bodyguards, all talking into their ear pieces and wishing their respective ministers would call it a night.

Brown may have admitted to being too serious but over the past few nights he made sure he paid a visit to all the major parties, particularly those hosted by the all-important newspapers. Whether he calls an early election or not, Brown wants the papers’ editors on side.

By Wednesday, the parties became much less exclusive as many ministers jetted off for important engagements and bleary-eyed delegates started to slope off home, leaving jaded journalists to party on, apparently safe in the knowledge that Brown’s speeches are now done and dusted and there is little sign he will catch them out with a surprise election call.

It’s my party and I’ll talk if I want to

Katherine Baldwin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:23:47 +0000

Gordon Brown has ensured that nobody steals the spotlight from him at his first Labour Party conference as prime minister. For years, he made sure he shared the headlines with Tony Blair.

His speeches as chancellor were pored over by the media for signs of him mounting a challenge to his rival. Photographers watched his every move. Did he laugh at Tony’s jokes? Did he clap? B

ut now he’s in charge, Brown has told his ministers to keep their speeches to just seven minutes. All the more time for him. He spoke for 64 minutes in his opening speech and will take centre-stage again on Wednesday for a Q&A session, likely to last a while longer than seven minutes.

Tony Blair liked being star of the show but can anyone imagine him telling Brown to sit down after seven minutes? Maybe it’s part of Brown’s green agenda but ministers’ conference speeches fit on just a few sheets of paper.

So his chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling had about 10 minutes to discuss the Northern Bank run and remind us Britain’s economic fundamentals are sound. “Is that it?” asked the financial journalists after Darling wrapped up.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s speech on Tuesday took up just 3 1/2 sides of A4, meaning many of the big issues were simplified into language like “the world can be a very scary place”.

Nor are there any celebrity guests to outshine Brown. No Bono, no Bill Clinton. It’s not surprising that seasoned journalists are complaining about a lack of buzz and trying to create their own in the endless round of evening parties.

Nothing flash about Labour’s Gordon

Katherine Baldwin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:55:33 +0000

After the glitz and razzmatazz of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown was decidedly not flash. His first speech as prime minister to the Labour Party conference was heavy on policy ideas and light on humour. Brown even admitted that sometimes he was too serious. But he struck the right note for a party that had grown tired with Blair’s wide grin and his emphasis on image. There was still pop music, but just the one song.

As the crowd rose to their feet for a standing ovation after his speech, TV cameras focused in on a woman in the audience wiping tears from her eyes. A nurse in the crowd said his speech had sent her heart beating faster, that she hadn’t been so excited about being a Labour Party member since 1997.

Brown ticked all the right boxes to keep his party happy - from union leaders to hospital workers to would-be mothers. His wish-list of policies appealed to manufacturers, students and carers.

He still looks a little wooden in the limelight and doesn’t quite know what to do with his hands or whether to smile when he’s the focus of attention. But Brown seems a lot more comfortable in front of the cameras than three months ago when he took over.

And rightly so. Unlike Blair, he doesn’t have a Brown to deal with, an arch rival waiting in the wings. For a man who is said to eschew media management and “spin”, he has managed this conference to perfection. The whole event has been about Brown.

That has left the huge team of journalists rather downbeat. The Blair-Brown split saga has kept headline writers busy for the past few years. Hence the media stir about a potential election, but Brown didn’t even rise to that bait.

What did you think of Brown’s speech? Has he created clear water between himself and Blair? Is it a new start for Labour?