Welsh Labour Conference

I went to Swansea for the first day and a half of the Welsh Labour Conference. I thought the new-style workshop sessions were very successful: we were getting far more ordinary party members contributing to the policy discussions, not constrained to think of making a particular kind of impact or speaking for a set number of minutes, whereas with the old-style conference set-piece scripted speeches were the order of the day. The sessions were more engaging, spontaneous, co-operative and creative. Perhaps we might have invited the media in to more sessions, though I'm not sure why Vaughan Roderick is looking forward to our conference in 201 years time.

Our key warning message, that a vote for Plaid or the Lib Dems could result in a Tory-led coalition, was clearly getting through, as reports on these speeches from Rhodri and Peter indicate.

Gordon's speech was excellent: passionate and powerful. We had a lot of delegates and visitors from the Rhondda there, and they all enjoyed it.