A quick reality check

Put me in a room full of the party faithful and my political batteries re-charge. It's why I love party conference so much.

So tonight's Progress meeting, Can Labour Win in the South?, was just what I needed. I can already see the big beaming grin spreading across Lewis's face so let me elaborate. First off, the room was completely rammed. Packed. A good sign.

Charles Clarke was pretty restrained and it would be difficult to build a critical story out of most of the comments he made - although he did set out a very Blairite routemap as a way through. I could see the political ghosts of Alan Milburn and Steve Byers standing behind him, a bit like Yoda and Obi Wan at the end of Return of the Jedi.

John Denham was passionate about Gordon's ability to get the party out of its current position. Everyone on the panel talked about a febrile media environment with "paraphrasing" misquotes rampant.

It was the call for authenticity that rang true for me - that's what appears to be lacking at the moment. Alan Johnson was authentic on Today this week - angry at the "True Confessions" mindset, irritated that policy is playing second fiddle to personality. But of course personality is the conduit for authenticity. Hmmm tricky that...

All in all it was a great analysis of the current situation from a politician's, rather than a commentator's, point of view.

Derek Draper was nice, Nicky Gavron took a shed-load of notes, as did Martha Kearney. Peter Hain listened, nodded, but cuts an odd figure these days without a Cabinet role.