Proud of what we’ve done – so much left to fight for

By Alex Smith

Gordon Brown’s speech, sprinkled with rhetoric and substance and with nods to the left and the right, seems to have please everybody at party conference.

Some announcements were repeats of already existing policies and some will fall on the deaf ears of an untrusting public (wasn’t a referendum on voting reform in the 1997 manifesto?) – but the national care service, free childcare for low income earners, skill internships, people’s post office banks and the £1billion innovation fund are exactly where the Labour party should be going into the next general election.

Some of the aspects of Labour policy that the grassroots have long disapproved of – ID cards and nuclear re-armament – were reeled in a little (non-compulsory ID cards is great – but what about the database of biometric data?) and that will please supporters and voters alike.

But the highlight of the speech must have been the Prime Minister’s proud list of Labour’s achievements, and the huge wave of noise from the delegates.

It may already be too late to completely reverse Labour’s fortunes, but this is the speech we wanted. Proud of our record, and building a vision of a better, fairer Britain.