1404, PH: We’ll be live-blogging Brown’s conference speech from 1415 onwards. In the meantime, CoffeeHousers, your thoughts on how our PM will kick things off. Last year, of course, he got Sarah Brown to introduce him. Will he repeat the trick this year? Or will he get someone else? Mandelson, perhaps? Or someone off X-Factor? Or will it be nothing flash, just Gordon? Your predictions, please…
1405, PH:
Brother Massie is also live-blogging the speech here.
1410, PH: Oh, and you can watch the speech here.
1416, PH: So what will Brown actually say? Well, his announcements on anti-social behaviour and childcare have been heavily trailed. Apart from that, we can expect some clarification of the dividing line on public spending, as well as some talk about cleaning up politics.
1421, JF: Walking through the conference corridors to the press centre there really isn’t that much of a buzz. This has been a fairly low-key conference and there is surprisingly little anticipation of the leader’s speech, unlike last year people don’t see it as do or die for Brown.

Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate, free for a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.
UNLOCK ACCESS Try a month freeAlready a subscriber? Log in