Party political Conference season.

 Party political Conference season.

After all the fun and games that normally accompany the party-political conference season in Britain there follows an important announcement. Politicians who fly the red flag must be ready to launch into their customary themes of working-class ideals before attacking the other parties with strongly worded language, rousing rhetoric and, above all, promises and pledges, guarantees and vows. 

At the moment the Labour party have all taken their outstanding business to one of the most famous docks in the country. Liverpool is far more accustomed to innumerable football League Championships, one Premier League, the Champions League and the European Cup. Over the years they can proudly boast some of the sweetest pop music sounds ever seen or heard, the most magnificent of musicians, song writers, boy bands and a city heaving with its timeless maritime history, a culture that embraces all of the latest art and modern architecture. 

For the rest of this week the Labour party have set up their socialist bandwagon in the home of Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr and the dearly departed John Lennon and George Harrison. It can also blow its trumpet for those now household names in Britain such as Cilla Black, Jimmy Tarbuck and latterly the comedian John Bishop without ever forgetting the superbly funny Paul O' Grady. It is quite a notable CV. But this week those earnest politicians with plenty to say for themselves have arrived in Liverpool and won't be afraid to express exactly what's on their mind.

Suddenly the city of Liverpool has changed to a political shade of red rather than the infinitely more entertaining of football red at Liverpool's Anfield. As regular as clockwork the Labour party will be equipped with their down to earth pragmatism, their no- nonsense pronouncements and then their declared statements on how the Britain economy would be far better served by Labour if they were voted into power at 10 Downing Street. Will this yet be another year for hot air, wise but meaningless words or will the country will be surrounded by yet more Labour grandstanding, bluster and points scoring?

Of course when, if at all, Sir Keir Starmer gets the top job the railways will be nationalised, the NHS, that vital emergency service that Labour once set up, will be restored to full health and schools will provide far more opportunities to those young students who just want to be fiercely ambitious and get on in life. The party conference will be well catered with those traditional beer and sandwiches left over by the Trades Union Congress and all will be sunshine and brightly coloured flowers. It'll be all for one and one for all. 

But this is the point when the Labour party will fall between all of the stools and may yet graze themselves into the bargain. Now the dilemma they may have to deal with is that their previous Labour leader underwent brutal character assassination and was criticised severely for everything including the weather, the way he dressed and the controversially filthy antisemitism that ultimately cost him his job. 

Since those heady days of the White Heat of Technology and well-lit pipes under Harold Wilson during the 1960s, the Labour party have quite literally laboured, plodding laboriously at times and then just muddling through against a permanent backdrop of revolutionary developments in the world of music, TV, radio and fashion. Suddenly the youngsters wore hip kaftans, beads in their hair and finally converged on Woodstock, that now iconic pop music festival during the late 1960s.

Under Harold Wilson, Huddersfield Town's most celebrated football fan, satire and irreverence shook hands with scandal and controversy. Nothing new then. But when women chose the right to take the Pill and Coronation Street gave us a revealing insight into its world of cobbled streets, pubs and back to back houses, the Labour party dominated proceedings and heavily identified with its dustmen, miners, postmen, office workers, milkmen and engineers.

But then until 1997 Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister of the UK, an achievement in itself since the Labour party had remained a dormant volcano ready to erupt at any moment. Labour pinched itself and couldn't help how excited they felt. Under Blair education would become the foremost priority and spoken three times over in case we hadn't got the message. Then pop stars like Liam Gallagher would be invited to swanky 10 Downing Street parties, a clear indication that Britain was listening to its contemporary voices and watching their faces.

Sadly, Blair was unfortunately drawn into the Iraqi war abroad against his better wishes and, alongside George Bush junior, succeeded in attracting the wrong kind of headlines. It's easy to be heavily critical of Blair's handling of the conflict, but the fact remains that some of us believe that he remains one of the most competent and capable of Prime Ministers in recent times. Blair was smartly dressed, proactive, fulfilling most of his promises and then smiling at his supporters with a clear conscience and respectable into the bargain.

After Tony Blair, Labour replaced their outgoing Prime Minister with the softly spoken, witty, articulate and always on the ball Gordon Brown. He had been well versed in the world of finance as Chancellor of the Exchequer but never really came to terms with the inherent difficulties that frequently cropped up while he was Prime Minister. It was one of those moments in Labour's history that everything good that happened before may have turned sour, perhaps a dreadful anti -climax.

And so we return to this year Labour party conference where the spotlight falls on a once human-rights lawyer of some renown and highly esteemed by his closest friends and colleagues. At the moment the jury is out on Sir Keir Starmer and judgments are perhaps premature but the feeling among most people is that the man is well intentioned and knowledgeable. Karmer resembles a man who'd rather be in a court of law though rather than the House of Commons opposite the new Prime Minister Liz Truss.

But when the week and the public opinions have been aired and the Labour party has stopped battling with its own rather battered image we may be able to see how far they've come. The bad, old days of Jeremy Corbyn, so Labour must hope have now gone forever. The attention now turns to a man with a highly intellectual legal brain but is still overseeing a political party who can only long for the day when all the publicity is favourable and the time is right to vote for a Labour Prime Minister. It does seem highly unlikely at any point in the immediate future but then Labour may try to recall a certain Tony Blair. The next two years could be interesting and eventful. Watch this space.