LONDON -- There has been more money at the Labour Party conference the past few years than the delegates' parents might ever have dreamed of, let alone the impoverished founders of the workers' party. There has been, and is, more money because the power is with the parliamentary leaders of this party.
The big commercial organizations were ostentatiously here last week with their stalls and slogans and glossy brochures and robotic PR agents. Even the stalls run by worthy charities and issues were better represented and spoke of moneyed professionalism. Scruffy idealists were noticeably absent -- not so much because they have abandoned the Labour Party as because they are such a dying breed in the new environment of global finance and professional nongovernment organizations.
Delegates were much less preoccupied with the issue of Prime Minister Tony Blair vs. Finance Minister Gordon Brown than with the media, which has been unable to think of any other political story to write. There were members who wanted Blair to go in the hope that the whole New Labour project (modernized public services, no special relationship with the unions, no national protectionism, free enterprise over state ownership -- even if it's your mum's retirement home) would go with him. They also wanted him to go as punishment for taking Britain into Iraq.