By Ben Davies BBC News Online staff at the TUC in Brighton

Mr Blair says he will keep to his 56 policy pledges

There have been one or two difficulties between the prime minister and his party's traditional union allies in the recent past.

When he rose to speak his reception was at most courteous.

Delegates sat around the conference hall in almost exactly the same way as they had for a series of speeches minutes before on worthy union matters.

'Flat reaction'

If someone had said, say 10 years ago, that a Labour premier would make a speech in which he basically served up exactly what the unions were wanting but got a lukewarm reception it would have been hard to credit.

Just a few weeks ago the Labour leadership signed up to a 56-point agreement that includes a whole range of workplace undertakings including ending the two-tier workforce.

Mr Blair told TUC delegates he had come to praise that agreement, not bury it.

But when he sat down all he got was a bit of light applause lasting just under 30 seconds.

'Just the beginning'

Tony Woodley of the TGWU told BBC News Online he thought Mr Blair had been given a "very flat reaction".

And Unison's Dave Prentis warned: "One speech is the start - it's not the end.

"What we are looking for is a radical third term for Labour and we are looking for policies that will have vision and will appeal to the grass roots of the Labour Party," signalling that for him at least the proof would come in the pudding.

Mr Woodley saw Mr Blair's speech as the first salvo of the next general election campaign.

Active activists?

"I thought it was interesting to hear the prime minister say that he was back to the domestic agenda," said Mr Woodley.

"He obviously realises that the agreements we reached at Warwick - where we are talking about support for manufacturing, maintaining investment in public services, making sure that we end the two tier workforce and all those important angles including support for pensioners - are all vote winners.

"They are all designed to keep our activists active and to ensure that voting Britain votes.

"I can have no complaints about the comments that the prime minister has made especially with the last comment about joining trade unions.

"I've waited a long time to hear that from this particular prime minister.

"The most important thing here is that we are now geared up for the general election. It all starts here the election's up and running."

Any alternatives?

Amicus boss Derek Simpson meanwhile said: "The government's listening and quite frankly we think that can be converted into an understanding that they deserve the support at the next election for a third term.

"Of course cynics will say that there is an element here of 'let's get through the election'.

"But at the end of the day it really still remains with us that we have no conviction that any other government would even listen, would even go to the trouble of saying the things that are being said.

"And if you look at the record along with the commitments that have already been made ... that's the package that in my view deserves the support of the electorate.

"It's certainly got the support of the trade union movement."

Mr Simpson added that it would be "utter stupidity" if the government reneged on its commitment made at the Labour Policy Forum in Warwick in July.

And Mr Prentis said he hoped Tony Blair's speech represented a fresh start in terms of the relationship between unions and New Labour.

Delegates view?

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said Mr Blair's speech was "serious and seriously good".

"It showed the prime minister at ease with the trade union movement, setting out a clear role for unions in making Britain a fairer place."

Sheila Bearcroft, a GMB delegate, said she felt Mr Blair's speech was "what the trade unions were waiting to hear" especially on the agreement forged at Warwick.

"It was what all trade unions were waiting to hear. We've waited seven years but it's come at last."

Sharif Abbas, of the TGWU, said: "I thought the speech was good. He could deliver more of course but we will give him time - nothing is going to be changed overnight."