Mix respect, teamwork and hope to deliver a coalition recipe for success

ONE word in particular kept popping into my head at the Labour Party Conference on Sunday afternoon.

It wasn’t high on the agenda, and it wasn’t too prevalent in the speeches. But it was in the air, nevertheless. It was in the determination visible in Gilmore’s speeches at the beginning and the end of the conference, and in Howlin’s mastery of the detail of the Government Programme.

It was in the spirited nature of the contributions made by Rebecca Moynihan and other younger delegates. And it was there too in the quiet conversations all around the hall, many of them involving delegates who’ve been going to party conferences for 30 years and more.