Tony bids adieu

But he's still such a tease. I'm going but I can't say when. As he said:

"The truth is, you cannot go on forever. That is why it is right this is my last conference as leader. Of course it is hard to let go, but it is also right to let go; for the country and for you, the party."

Before he left the stage maintenance workers had to be called in to pry his fingers loose from the podium.

All in all it was a bit of "more of the same", the usual lecture-like performance. Underneath the message "thank you, the Labour party for giving me the extraordinary privilege of leading you these past 12 years" was the subliminal message "aren't you thankful that you've had me to lead you".


Elsewhere he delineated his version of liberty:

"but because our idea of liberty is not keeping pace with change in reality, those freedoms are in jeopardy ... we can only protect liberty by making it relevant to the modern world" i.e. by redefining freedom to fit his purpose.

To quote Kris Kristofferson - "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose".

In coded language he made it clear that the troops won't be coming home whilst he's still in office:

"If we retreat now, hand Iraq over to al-Qaeda and sectarian death squads and Afghanistan back to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, we won't be safer; we will be committing a craven act of surrender that will put our future security in the deepest peril ..."

But not to worry his last days will be spent as Blair the Peacemaker

"From now until I leave office I will dedicate myself, with the same commitment I have given to Northern Ireland , to advancing peace between Israel and Palestine. I may not succeed."

In his defence he did something that the Bush administration (if fact all American administrations) is unable or unwilling to do - link the Palestinian Israeli conflict to terrorism, even if he does it obliquely:

"But I will try because peace in the Middle East is a defeat for terrorism."

All in all the speech was generally well received and there was about 8 minutes of applause at the end; whether that was in appreciation of his years as PM or because they were glad to see the back of him is open to question.