LABOUR CONFERENCE: Like dance of the macabre as listless liner drifts to disaster

Like a listless ocean liner drifting inevitably towards the iceberg, fear permeated the Labour Party conference, with just the occasional beam of hope flashing through the doom as if it were a tantalising flicker of salvation from a distant lighthouse.

The passengers and crew on the good ship Labour all know where this journey will end, smashed ashore on rocks of reality as the water takes them under — Irish Water to be precise.

But the assurance of their sealed political fate seemed to gel into a strangely upbeat mood as if they collectively decided to go down fighting.