You would expect the week that Britain's embattled ruling party held its conference to be a good one for blogging. Surely there should be loads of new policies to discuss, lots of political skulduggery to mull over? Well, not so far.
Indeed, just a few days after a major economic crisis, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, managed to give a keynote speech in which he said almost nothing interesting at all.
And as for Gordon Brown – who is meant to be fighting for his political survival – the best he has come up with is a pledge that every two-year-old will get a free nursery school place by 2018. Needless to say, that will cost money he doesn't have, and he won't be around to see it through anyway. It's an empty promise.
It's also a bad idea. The last thing the UK needs to do is extend the dubious (and costly) benefits of state education to two-year-olds. Children in most countries already start school much later than in the UK, and seem to be better off for it.
In truth, you can't escape the feeling that Labour has reached the end of the line. After 11 years in power, they are divided, introspective, and devoid of fresh ideas. The big question is, how long will it take them to recover?
