Brown looks intent on respawning New Labour. Or rather, New Labour’s propaganda apparatus; Derek Draper returned recently, Mandelson comes back today. Unity suspects Campbell might return in a consulting role to fully pull together the team that tripped the landslide in 1997. Add to that the apparent retention and promotion of Blairites, and the neglect of the left - and it becomes clear Brown feels the 1997 formula might just work.

If so, he fails to note the rather obvious flaw in his plan; it’s not 1997, and we no longer have a Tory government in power. We have a Labour government, who’ve been in power since 1997, and so have presided over the current decline into gloom. For which they might well be blamed. Figures such as Mandelson thus become the problem, not the solution. They’re associated with all the worst aspects of New Labour - the lies, the hated spin - and their appointment simply reminds the public that they exist. So to expect their return to lead to a change in fortune is simply bizarre; they helped construct the current mess, and will be blamed for that. It’s a sign that Labour just isn’t listening, and wants to carry on as before - when, clearly, the polls show the public no longer want that. Mandelson might be a worryingly skilled political operator, but he’s also so loathed that he could well make the situation worse. So, on ideological and tactical grounds; a very bad decision.

The reshuffle is more horrible than I could ever have imagined. Yes, it’s the return of Peter Mandelson, he who starves the poor and says that Brown should hold New Labour to the “Centre” rather than swinging left (when in fact the former would require the latter). John Hutton is moving to a role which will let him arrange killing people and Geoff Hoon, the man who previously did that job so poorly that British troops were fighting without basic body armour, is now in charge of transport. Doubtless a bus sighting will soon become a rarity.

In other words, the ascendency of the Blairites has become total. In this time of economic collapse Brown has found no place for the left. Perhaps he wishes to play the reliable New Labour acolytes off against the more radical Millibandians or perhaps, as usual, he’s just being a damn fool.

Good.

I don’t really think that this should “Rock” Brown’s position, apart perhaps from this being a brutal reminder that he would place somebody so blatantly Blairite, horribly inadequete and ideologically at odds with himself into cabinet. That was a piece of foolishness, but thankfully she has amended it for him. As for her declaring his speech “Terrible”, well if that was more than insidious Tory gossip then she was wrong, his speech was a fine one.

I’m glad that she’s out of the cabinet and this has rather whet my appetite for the mass purge of the Blairites (albeit in exchange for real Tories) that seems to be near certain come the next election.

(Immediately after Brown’s conclusion.)

(Enjoying an urgent word with an aide. “Call off the assault!”, perhaps?)

(Jack Straw immediately after Brown promises free prescriptions for cancer sufferers. Thrilled, I’m sure.)

This country has never been broken by anyone or anything. It wasn’t broken by fascism, it wasn’t broken by the Cold War and it wasn’t broken by terrorists.

Gordon Brown.

On the off-chance that anyone would miss me I should mention now that if the rumour of John Hutton being chancellor in David Miliband’s cabinet comes to pass then I am leaving the country.

Edit: I noted shortly after making this post that the “Defence” slot was filled by Jack Straw, meaning that he will leave the nation’s protection in the charge of a man likely to lose his seat in the next election. When I mentioned this to Douglas he pointed out that John Hutton too is present on the “at risk” list. This considered I can but hope that this list was pure Blairite fiction, as in hindsight it does appear to be anyway.

(Note: Originally posted at Liberal Conspiracy.)

A Blairite acquaintance languishing at the Labour Conference reports:

Conference is generally quite upbeat and behind Gordon. My less confident attitude hasn’t been too popular!

This just before another text asking me whether I’d seen yesterday’s poll in the Observer confirming Labour’s impending electoral annihilation. These delegates know how dire the situation is, and yet they refuse to act against it. A conference packed with loyalists.

Compare that with a confirmed socialist’s verdict:

Last night I went to a party, drank four glasses of free champagne and compared dresses with important political ladies for a set period of time before going outside to smoke with the other interns and attempt to throw up my own lungs in a paroxysm of horror. What on earth happened to the Labour party? What happened?

(I spent the rest of the evening shouting about the RMT to Boris’ transport minister and attempting to get people to stand on chairs with me and sing ‘the red flag’. I’m not sure I’ll be invited back.)

At every event they’re edging closer to coming out and admitting that Labour has abandoned the grassroots. Peering out from their glittering Westminster bubble, even the chummy delegates and media flunkies here in Manchester are starting to get a little bit worried. If they don’t mobilise, if they don’t involve the communities and do more to address the needs of the people who vote for them and buy their newspapers, the number of expensive dinners on their horizon looks to significantly dwindle.”

There we have it; “Labour has abandoned the grassroots.” Conference exists in a gossipy bubble which bears little relation to the outside world; ministers grandstand on stage to choreographed applause. And the only reports which make it out are of that gossip - who spoke to whom, where, when and how that won’t make any difference anyway as they’re all so scared the party will come crashing down around their ears. A far cry from the political extravaganza Diane Abbott recalls from her earlier days.

Party conferences exist as the democratic interface between the membership and the hierarchy. Members spread out across the country can’t play a daily part in a centralised national party; but they can ensure its accountability at regular, democratic meetings. They use Conference to vote on policy, and on those to articulate it, and the party should remain true to its membership.

Except that patently doesn’t happen at Labour Conferences anymore. The grassroots and delegates have little or no influence on most party business. They vote on motions, they vote for committees of now-questionable potency - and they listen to speeches. They have no means of holding those speakers to account, as they’re appointed by the leader.

And they have no realistic means of holding that leader to account, given the tortuous process whereby sufficient MPs must first squabble and acquire signatures before the general membership is even consulted. Power has accumulated into the hands of a small party elite, and that elite has gradually closed off any paths by which it might be challenged; leaving the grassroots with nothing.

Even sheer physical protest at this strangulation of internal democracy is difficult. At any time that matters, the Conference floor finds itself carefully managed to the point that even MPs cannot register their views. My friend (a minor staffer, for the sake of as much disclosure as he’ll allow me) informs me Siobhan McDonaugh attempted to lead a walk out of Brown’s opening speech; but her seat had already been surrounded by party staff to reduce its effectiveness to naught.

Labour Party loyalists inform disillusioned progressives that we must support this government, however much we hate it, or face a decade of Tory rule. But when we loathe so much of what that government has done, and have so little chance to influence it, what, really, is the point? The death of internal democracy signalled the death of Labour’s membership; there’s little point signing up to an organisation whose pronouncements you just can’t control. The party would do well to realise that if it ever wants its mass support back.

My mole at the Labour Party Conference, who shall remain nameless, informs me:

Conference generally is quite upbeat and behind Gordon. My less confident attitude hasn’t been too popular!

This in the same text that he asks whether I’d seen the Observer poll predicting Labour’s outright doom this morning. Delegates clearly know the party is in trouble, but all reports I’ve seen claim those delegates are in a remarkably loyal mood. Perhaps they’re in denial - or fear any action would just make the situation worse.

It should come as no surprise that the following prospect fills me with glee:

While the Foreign Secretary would survive the rout, his power base would be decimated, making it much harder for him to get elected in a party likely to have shifted to the left: cabinet allies James Purnell and John Hutton would have gone, along with senior Blairites Alan Milburn and Charles Clarke. Jacqui Smith, Ruth Kelly, John Denham, Des Browne, Geoff Hoon and Jack Straw are projected to lose their seats. In Scotland, the poll predicts the SNP will win next month’s Glenrothes by-election.

Good.

Does this blue tide fill me with dread? Yes. If it purges the party of this right-wing clogging shall it be worth it? Yes. Do Charles Clarke’s squirms as he comes to realise his fate of losing to a real left-winger please me? Yes. Do I still have faith in the “Miliband as Messiah” model? Yes. Can even Alan Sugar save Gordon Brown now? No.