Much like Peter Mandelson’s address yesterday, Gordon Brown’s speech was designed for the Labour Party members inside the conference hall. It was effectively book-ended by two crowd-pleasing rat-a-tat lists: the first, a rundown of Labour “achievements” which received massive cheers; and the second, a disingenuous account of Tory measures “for the privileged few”, designed to draw hisses and boos from the audience. All very pantomine. And all very fun, I’m sure, for the party faithful.
But what about those voters who are turning away from Labour in their droves? What was there for them? Well, having Sarah Brown introduce her husband again was a cynical attempt to reach out to what Gordon might call the “hardworking majority,” but what might more accurately be termed “Normal Britain”. While Brown himself had a range of policies – free childcare, a crackdown on anti-social behaviour, supervised housing for young mothers – which were heavily trumped up, but which failed to add up to a cohesive whole.
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