Gordon Brown’s speech

Gordon Brown knew that he was fighting for his future as Prime Minister when he spoke in Manchester at the Labour party conference yesterday. His speech was inevitably warmly received by Labour activists, but what about those outside the party?

David Osler, writing for Liberal Conspiracy, took a sceptical view of Brown's constant repetition of the word 'fair', which struck him as meaningless rhetoric. "How fair can it be that 22 per cent of the population live in poverty... how fair is it that British workers still have the poorest employment rights of any industrialised countries?" he asked. Osler also questioned Brown's insistence that he was on the side of hard-working families.

Writing on the Telegraph website, Alex Singleton was equally critical. "His endless, tedious use of the word 'fairness' may play well to the Left-wing ideologues in the Labour auditorium, but we have had a decade of his sort of fairness - a decade of taking money of Middle England and wasting it on Labour's pet projects," Singleton said.

On the Spectator blog, James Forsyth pointed out Labour's continuing internal divisions. "Team Brown are making little attempt to pretend that the 'no time for a novice' line wasn't aimed at David Miliband as much - if not more - than David Cameron," he wrote. Forsyth envisaged an opportunity for the Tories at their conference: "Most voters realise that there is a huge financial crisis on but they do not know what has caused it or what should happen now. A huge prize awaits the politician who can explain to the electorate in plain English why this crisis has occurred and what should be done now."

The Spectator's editor Matthew D'Ancona was a little more generous: "Cheesy, vacuous, and occasionally brilliant. From the appearance of Sarah Brown, Michelle Obama-style, to the implicit dig at [David] Cameron for parading his children, to the eschewing of statistics – "that's not just a number" - from the driest political statistician of them all, to the hokey soundbite "one hope at a time", this was pure, shameless, vintage political theatre. Cynical as hell, but splendid, too."

Abroad though, the reception was warmer. The Washington Times said that "Brown energized his governing Labor Party's annual conference with an address studded with pledges on the organization's totemic issues and attacks on the opposition Conservatives."

And Dave Prentis, the General Secretary of Unison, the public sector union, was delighted: "This is exactly the sort of agenda that people wanted to hear from their Labour government. The PM made it absolutely clear that the NHS will remain at the heart of a fair society... He showed clear red water between Labour and the Conservatives. He did what every party member wanted - turn his guns on the Tories."

Labour councillor Kerron Cross was equally enthused. "Not flash, just Gordon. When he is under pressure Gordon has the ability to be a brilliant performer. He is a details man, and played to his strengths. He has beliefs. He wants to do the right thing. And, hey, if you don't like him, then fine - he will just get on with doing the right thing and take it on the chin. I agree with him 100% for his approach. It seems to have buoyed up people at conference."

The true measure of Brown's success will be judged by the reaction of his Labour critics. Jim Dodd on LabourHome was ready to give him more time: "He told a story behind the numbers, drew comparison to a cause greater than the party and praised each Cabinet member. I've wanted him gone and still would prefer that, but what would be better would be the 'narrative' changes and the media give us a better hearing." ·