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| You'll have a fight if you want me out |
Ian Kirby reports on Gordon Brown's big speech to Labour Conference at Manchester.
"When things get tough, we get tougher. We stand up, we fight hard - for fairness. We don't give in and we never will."
Forget all the rubbish about free broadband and cheap computers (Do I cancel my broadband service now and wait for the cheque???), Gordon Brown's speech to Manchester was about being brutally frank about the fact that he has no plans on walking out of Downing Street anytime soon, even if the Cabinet queue up to ask him to leave.
This was a typical Gordon Brown speech - brutal boasting, Soviet-style lists of past achievements and the usual cliches. Plus some rather wounding jibes about David Cameron's family.
Hacks playing "conference bingo" at the GMex centre in Manchester soon racked up big scores:
hard working families
clearly
crime rates falling
listening
growth
responsibility
aditional spending
our NHS
my left eye
were all early high scorers.
The lectern was back, as were the massive bags under his eyes.
At times he even appeared to be clapping his own speech, although apparently he was applauding the NHS.
We got an even longer version of how the battle to save his sight inspired his passion for the National Health Service.
But there was nothing here that the gathered Labour Party members will be able to sell on the doorstep.
Nothing to say to a pensioner whose gas bill trebled tomorrow. Nothing new for a family whose teenage son was stabbed to death at a bus stop last week.
No mention too of his hard-working and long-suffering Chancellor Alistair Darling.
Instead there is just an unbending commitment to stay in Downing Street for as long as possible:
"I know what I believe. I know who I am. I know what I want to do on this job. And I know that the way to deal with tough times is to face them down... Understand that all the attacks, all the polls, all the headlines, all the criticism, it's all worth it if in doing this job I make life better for one child, one family, one community."
In other words, if any of you try to get rid of me you will destroy the Labour Party because "this job is not about me, it's about you."
Here in Manchester you cannot walk 10 yards without bumping into a government minister who thinks Gordon Brown is now totally beyond rescue.
But today's speech made one thing abundantly clear - the Cabinet are going to have to roll up their sleeves and get ready for a fight.
It's going to be long, painful and extremely brutal.
It's good for business if you're a political editor, but Gordon Brown may have just guaranteed David Cameron at least 10 years in government.
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