Page last updated at 18:49 GMT, Friday, 2 October 2009 19:49 UK

The Buzz: Best and worse of Labour conference

BBC's Siobhan Courtney
By Siobhan Courtney

Welcome to The Buzz, our weekly round up of how the stories Newsnight reports are being talked about in the blogosphere, twitterverse and other social media.

THE SPEECH OF HIS LIFE?

Gordon Brown's conference address had been billed as the speech of his life - but was it, and did it succeed in reviving the prime minister's fortunes?

You can have a look and decide for yourself.

Gordon Brown's conference speech in full

Newsnight's David Grossman, who was in the audience, gave us his assessment of Mr Brown's speech.

Several members of the Labour leadership had said that the prime minister would come out swinging because he was a fighter.

Blogger davywavy responded by saying: "Of course he's a bloody fighter. He was hardly going to be a wizard or a cleric with stats that low, was he?"

A Very Public Sociologist reckons Mr Brown is not popular "because he's accumulated about his person the lies, the cronyism and cretinism, the venality, and the petty authoritarianism associated with the New Labour project in the popular imagination".

Jess The Dog said that the most galling thing about the speech was that there was only a passing half-hearted mention of the Armed Forces, and went on to reference Mr Brown's constant mentions of change saying: "Labour have indeed changed hundreds and thousands of lives - the war dead and war wounded and their families."

The Wilted Rose criticised Mr Brown's proposal to house lone teenage mothers in supervised homes, calling them "detention centres" and saying teenage parents and their babies are "clearly a group hated by Labour as much as they hate asylum seekers".

Wilted Rose went on to talk about Newsnight's report on the Blakenall estate in Walsall saying: "It only took a young girl from Willenall in Walsall, interviewed on Newsnight yesterday evening, to demolish the absurd and heartless policy."

STAND BY YOUR MAN

Before the speech, Sarah Brown climbed onto the stage in Brighton, to introduce her "heroic husband".

Sarah Brown: "He loves his country and he will always, always, put you first"

Backwards in High Heels thought Mrs Brown's performance owed a great deal to Michelle Obama's campaign trail role and said:

"Mrs Brown talked about her husband being messy, noisy and getting up at an unearthly hour. The two men may have failed to get it together over at the G20; but at least they have one thing in common: they are both slobs."

Of course not everyone shares Mrs Brown's admiration for her husband. The British Democracy Forums described her tribute to him as "sickening".

Spada said the kind of speech Mrs Brown made "puts a premium on self-deprecation", but asked if it will wash, or if, like the dress the premier's wife was wearing "are we left scratching our heads, wondering what, precisely, was meant?"

And on the subject of her dress, let me deviate quickly from the politics to bring you a quick round up of the fashionistas' verdict of Mrs Brown's dress, shoes, hair and makeup... bear with me, this is important!

There was praise for her support of British designers at Fab Sugar.

Political Style's post The Sartorial Re-Branding of Sarah Brown said "Sarah's style has certainly evolved compared to this time last year. She seems to be taking more risks, whilst sticking to shapes, styles and designers which she likes".

But Tory Bear's expected post She's No Jackie O said: "Even scarier than the amount of Twitter followers that Sarah's well orchestrated PR campaign in women's magazines has bought her, is the fact that this unelected spinner is allegedly sitting in on meetings with cabinet members."

THE SUN SETS ON NEW LABOUR

George Pascoe-Watson, political editor of The Sun, explained to Jeremy Paxman in Brighton why the newspaper has switched allegiance to the Conservatives.

George Pascoe-Watson explains the paper's move on BBC Two's Newsnight

Next Left responded to the move by saying that: "However hard Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair sought the endorsement of Britain's biggest selling newspaper, it was never 'The Sun Wot Won It' for Labour."

On The Student Room message boards one posted said: "We are much less likely to ever again see a situation where 'It was the Sun wot won it' now that we have the internet. Its still bad news for Labour though, if not unexpected."

But it has been reported that Labour and The Sun have also been slugging it out in cyberspace with a fight over Google ads.

Nick Burcher blogged that this latest development "is another indication that online will be a key battleground in the forthcoming UK election".

The Spectator has advised that however angry Labour might be about the timing of The Sun’s move, it would be better off avoiding a slanging match with people who buy ink in industrial quantities.

Lots of reaction on message boards on football forums like this from Crystal Palace Football Club : "I have never forgiven The Sun for telling their readers to Vote Labour in 1997, which of course they duly did, starting the mess we are in now."

And on the Cardiff City Messageboards one poster thinks "The Murdoch's have been waiting a long time to put the boot into Labour".



SEE ALSO
The Buzz: Web gets behind hacker
21 Jul 09 |  Newsnight
The Buzz: An obit for the Observer?
06 Aug 09 |  Newsnight
The Buzz: Are you one of Wogan's Togs?
11 Sep 09 |  Newsnight


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