Gordon Brown's Speech

Awaiting this afternoon's speech from Labour leader Gordon Brown, I am struck by two unavoidable truths:

(1) There is a startling lack of excitement and trepidation for the Conference's main event which will be the Prime Minister's last before a General Election.

(2) There is now no chance of Cabinet Ministers making a significant move to unseat their leader.

The Labour party is therefore stuck, stuck between a rock and a hard place and so too are we, the British people. Stuck with a long 9 months to go until the General Election with the lamest of lame duck Prime Ministers at the helm. There is a pregnant pause before we can collectively move on from Labour's collective insipidness, their man-made funk.

But imagine a different scenario. Imagine being captivated by an Alan Johnson speech, newly installed as Labour leader, performing with that genuine, affable, languorous, wittily self-deprecating manner that would sit so attractively and rewardingly against Cameron's hollow appeal.

Or Ed Miliband, Labour's new star leader shining as bright as his pink tie and fuschia background, fizzing with excitement as he blazed his trail towards May 2010 with a barnstorming speech and no doubt carrying a fair chunk of a dazzled public with him.

Even a leader's speech from the darkly comical and immensely talented Lord Mandelson would have the country sit up and take notice today.

Sadly Gordon Brown simply cannot compete with the above personalities and yet still his bottom is parked at the top of the Labour tree. We know in advance that today's speech will neither inspire nor enthuse, neither entertain nor surprise. The speech is past its 50th draft but even then most of us already know what to expect from it. The speechwriters even admit that he looks likely to screw it up.

Admittedly, the PM grazed over the bar when he delivered a surprisingly good speech at the Labour Conference last year and he told the Americans what they wanted to hear in his half-decent performance at the US Congress in the Spring.

But if they are the high points, if that is the ceiling that the Labour leader can realistically expect to reach this afternoon, then it is no wonder that voters, journalists and party activists alike will meet the speech with a yawning indifference.

'Operation Fightback' may yet evolve into 'As long as we beat Clegg' before the week is out, such is the party's lack of collective optimism.

The Labour party suppressed its imagination when it fleetingly dared to dream of a new leader and consequently it suppressed its chances of ever winning the next General Election.

This afternoon, as the dull tones of their resented leader reverberates through them, Labour's emasculated party members must take their punishment sitting down and, for the few minutes of the embarrassing but obligatory ovation, standing up.

It all could have been, and should have been, very different