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Labour in Brighton have come a long way from the days when Neil Kinnock took a tumble into the surf. In those innocent days before the 'War on Terror' it didn't take fifteen minutes just to get into the Brighton Centre, running the gauntlet of armed police and metal detectors, and once inside the secure zone, it's best to stay there all day rather than popping in and out to attend the odd fringe in a distant hotel, as one would wish.
It's a new experience for the production team to have John out and about for the programme. He seems to be instantly recognisable to many delegates and the general public, and he seems to have total recall for people he last met fifteen years ago. It's more of a progress along the seafront when we try and walk back to the hotel as all comers - most of them from Wales - stop John for a chat. But some things never change - he still gets the best room in the hotel.
Amongst MPs and delegates, it's clear that the talk is all of Blair and Brown as John discovers when he attends the famous New Statesman party on the opening night of conference. The repercussions from the Chancellor's effective demotion from taking charge of election strategy are still being felt, and the gossip on this particular fringe is about the two men in Downing St, and the friction between their respective camps.
On the conference platform though it's all more harmonious - Blair pays tribute to his 'close personal friend' of twenty years standing, and Brown's platform speech causes less trouble than the previous year which had seemed a more obvious pitch for the leadership. Both these men passed through the Today studio in the Metropole hotel during the course of the week. John's pre-interview banter now consists entirely of baby talk - about his young son, the Chancellor's baby John and of course Leo Blair. Humphrys and Brown agree that there is now a bewildering array of baby clothes available, and at fantastic cost - listening in from the cubicle it sounds like the filming for a new series of Grumpy Old Men.
It's been quite a surprise to get the interview with the Prime Minister - it had been thought that after a particular diligent grilling in the run-up to the 2001 General Election the PM would probably pass up the opportunity to do another interview with John, but in the end he couldn't resist, and turned up looking spry the morning after his conference speech, fashionably late, clutching his steaming mug of tea, with no sign of the health worries that were to be announced later in the week. After a bit of softening up toddler-talk, the interview gets under way, focusing in the main on Iraq and foreign policy. John is fascinated by the implications of Blair's world view - there is no 'third way' in the war on terror, the choice is to root out terror wherever it springs up, or to live with the consequences. And what would that mean if Blair had to come to the Commons again and ask to go to war based on intelligence assessments?
Listen again to the interview.
The best entertainment is always the Deputy Prime Minister though. Seeing John and John face to face is another great treat - the mood is still Grumpy Old Men - but Prescott has some fantastic lines. He's being pursued round the conference not by hunt protesters but by Brighton and Hove Albion fans who want him to approve a new stadium in the area...a group of protesters saw him across the road, he says, 'I've never seen so many people waving with two fingers'. While he's doing the interview, the studio producer in London comes on the line: his Dad's an Albion fan and has just rung in to ask whether we can put in a good word about the Falmer stadium...
Jamie Angus
Assistant Editor, Today Programme.
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