by mark green

Last updated 09:24, Saturday, 20 September 2008

INFLATION up, unemployment up, the financial world in meltdown, but don’t worry – the Labour Party conference starts today!

Not sure which is worse, the annual mass rally of the Conservatives or of the Red Rose brigade.

Usually, the former leaves me weeping, while the latter just makes me laugh.

One person I can guarantee who will not be laughing at the end of the conference is Gordon Brown.

It seems his own MPs have got the knives out for him.

But while the Cabinet cutlery stays firmly in the drawer (for now), unheard-of backbenchers and minor ministers queue up to call him names and ridicule his performance since entering 10 Downing Street.

The attacks in themselves don’t amount to much, but these pin-pricks are bleeding him and Government dry of public support and trust. None of the Cabinet heavyweights is prepared to step forward and offer an alternative.

Instead, they anonymously brief the media and prompt junior colleagues to make attacks that injure the whole of the party and not just him.

So he will limp along, looking more and more like a bloodhound being led to the unwanted dog’s home.

It is typical of the irony of politics that a man who spent so long briefing and conniving to get rid of Tony Blair should be the victim of such an orchestrated campaign of eviction.

The sad thing is, the Labour Party is making the Conservatives look like a Government-in-waiting without even having to come up with any half-decent policies. The get-together in Manchester could be his funeral pyre or the launch pad for the political comeback of all time.

But I can’t see this week offering Gordon any chance of turning the situation around – or any hope of a rival stepping forward to provide him with a quick and merciful end to his agonies.

And we haven’t even got the usual John Prescott speech to cheer us all up...