After the speech....
- 26 Sep 06, 06:02 PM
It will be on all the news bulletins this evening and all over the papers tomorrow - and here in Manchester delegates are still talking about Tony Blair's last speech as Prime Minister. The queues to get in to the conference hall told their own story - it was the longest line of people we'd seen since arriving here, and trust me, that's saying something (as anyone who picked up their conference accreditation on Sunday afternoon can attest). The music as they showed an introductory video caught the mood : Never Forget by Take That. The banners near the front told their own story : Oh Won't You Stay Just A Little Bit Longer, Things Got Better, Simply The Best. NIO Minister David Hanson told us on Evening Extra he knew it would be an emotional day for the Prime Minister - before coming to Northern Ireland Mr Hanson was the PM's parliamentary private secretary for four years. Shahid Malik worked as an equality commissioner here before being elected as MP for Dewsbury. He told us he thought the speech was "inspiring". Bertie Ahern popped up on that introductory video - talking about Mr Blair's contribution to Northern Ireland. That, unsurprisingly, got a huge cheer from delegates. Just two glancing references in the speech to NI, though - but at the weekend Mr Blair told the Manchester Evening News that Northern Ireland was "really very important" to him when asked about his legacy. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News website gives us the stats on the clapometer - nearly ten minutes of a standing ovation at the end. Delegates are heading off to digest the speech at fringe meetings all over Manchester now...we'll no doubt be meeting a lot of them as we do our own fringe trek this evening.
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