John Reid's speech and Cherie's blast batter Brown

Labour's Conference cannot be dismissed as froth. As the governing party and likely to remain so according to the resuming support in the polls after the recent slump, the identity of the next Labour leader is crucial both for the country, our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the other members of the EU. My money remains on Tony Blair continuing possibly on the back of some emerging new international crisis most likely with Iran. Cherie's public expression of the untruthfulness of Chancellor Brown would tend to confirm this. If there is to be a new Prime Minister within the next year, few can now believe it will be Gordon Brown after his lacklustre speech and surly and brooding demeanour on the platform throughout the typically inventive speech by ex-President Clinton. The clincher was the much more accomplished offering by yet another Scot Dr John Reid. Incredible that England has been unable to produce a politician who appears to have any chance of attaining the highest office in the UK (except of course for the, as yet, too young and too cunningly ambitious David Miliband)