Where was the promised vociferous voice of the People of Britain, demanding an end to gratuitous warmongering ? Blair's speech was received in silence, sullen perhaps, but in politics, silence ultimately can be presumed as assent.
Interviewed on the way out of the conference hall, the delegates, probably on their way to Blackpools pubs, spoke of Blair's eloquence, even a 'beautiful' speech, mumbled about needing more proof from the hypothetical 'dossier'. Round One to Blair then: an Oxford uni course in rhetorics has its uses after all. It'll now be easeir for the immenent Labour party conference to be swayed too, and the much-hoped for Parliamentary recall will simply be used to rubber- stamp the stragtey of pressurising the UN into acquiesensce for military action.
Why were the Unions so quiet ? They've seemed quite bellicose up to now, but a fairly standard politician's speech was enough to voluntarily gag them. Blair said nothing which could give anyone any remote hope that he would call off the gathering storm of war; but then he quickly moved on and spoke about the minimum wage (which should be termed miniMAL wage), made ludicrous Bogeyman warnings about the Tories, reeled off a few statistics about the economy and spoke with pride about "new apprenticeships", that is a revival of the old patrician mode of employment where people spend a lifetime in a mode of subservience in one occupation.
In other words, the Unions were told to mind their place, and they readily agreed. If they want to compromise their own independence and abrogate their rights to oppose, thats up to them, but the international context cannot be ignored ! Without Britain's support, its doubtful whether Bush would be pushing ahead quite so resoultely. That was the crucial matter yesterday, and it was lost.