Blair's last hurrah still labours with pains

It was a bravura performance. Blair outdid Blair as one of the most charismatic politicians in Europe, if not the world, bowed out with a valedictory speech to the Labour Party that even some of his critics could not but admire.

For all that Blair has not sailed famously into the political sunset. True this was the last time he would address the annual party conference as its leader.

But he did not set a date for his leaving, as some of his party MPs had demanded only a few weeks back in an infamous letter addressed to the prime minister.

What is clear is that this time next year he would have been succeeded to the party leadership.

In the meantime Tony Blair had work to do and that in-tray was full of jobs to complete before he hands over the reins. What that would be we would know for sure when the Speech from the Throne is read before parliament opens next year.

His chancellor Gordon Brown believes he is the rightful heir to the Labour Party's top spot. Over 10 years ago he had intentions of contesting the position after John Smith. But eventually he gave way to Blair and he has been waiting in the wings to take over a party that has won three consecutive elections making Blair the most successful Labour prime minister in history.

But the rivalry between them in recent years and especially in the last few weeks has been the subject of many a headline and recrimination in the party as its fortunes began to decline in opinion polls.

When a group of MPs wrote to Blair demanding he set an early date for his departure there was much speculation in the media that if Gordon Brown did not actually have a hand in instigating what was so like a palace coup, at least he was aware of it. This later led to a private confrontation between the two men who represented what has been called "New Labour" in which some harsh words were said to have been flung at each other. Instead of forcing Blair into the open and making him declare when he would definitely go anointing Brown as the heir, it seemed to have steeled Blair's resolve not to bow to what he saw as a conspiracy to oust him.

So when it came to saying goodbye last week at the Manchester conference he did so with a speech of defiance and a catalogue of achievement over the last 10 years but not a word on who should succeed him.

Yes, he did offer words of praise to Gordon Brown without whom, he said, there would not be a "New Labour" and they would not have won three general elections. Yes, he said, Brown was a remarkable man who was a remarkable servant to the country.

Some might have thought it sounded somewhat like Mark Anthony's speech on the steps of the senate after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Anthony was to call Brutus and his fellow conspirators "all honourable men". And Brutus himself "an honourable man."

By praising Brown but not endorsing him as the future leader Blair has left the opportunity for another candidate to throw his hat in the ring and pose a challenge to the chancellor.

For the past couple of weeks or more there has been speculation of a possible challenge to Brown. Even opinion polls have indicated that a leadership contest would be the best for the Labour Party because ultimately whoever wins would lead the country.

Though Gordon Brown was expected to make much of the opportunity this week when addressing the conference to strengthen his case for leadership and set his vision for the future his speech seemed dull and was completely overshadowed by Blair's the next day.

Brown appeared as a dour personality lacking in charisma and he would be hard put to fill Blair's shoes when he eventually goes next year.

The problem for Labour is that Blair has dominated government and Labour Party politics for so long that others have been very much in his shadow and never measured up as potential leaders who would earn national and international respect.

Another worrying factor for Labour is that the Conservative Party, which has also had major leadership problems, has finally found a personable leader who some commentators have called a Blair image.

With the opinion polls showing the Conservatives in the lead and David Cameron scoring heavily against Gordon Brown on several issues, both personal and national, Labour would have to face the next elections against a rejuvenated Tory party. Blair tried to shoot down Cameron and the Tories in his speech knowing well that winning a fourth election-which he called his real legacy- would depend heavily on how Labour under a new leader takes on the Tories in parliament and outside.

Referring to Blair's last hurrah and the tasks ahead for the new leader "The Times" newspaper said editorially: "His exit has set a new and very high standard for his successor, who is almost certain to be Mr Brown.

It is unlikely that he can match Mr Blair for style but he certainly must be with him in substance. Nor can he retreat into risk aversion, which itself would be an admission of personal and political defeat."

The Guardian newspaper had this to say in its editorial " He swept back into Labour hearts with an elegant and emotional explanation of his political purpose, a speech that placed him in history but left no one doubting that his ambitions for change run deep into the future. His elegiac intensity outshone anything else heard in Manchester this week, not least the chancellor's speech of the day before, but in its grandeur the prime minister's last conference address also managed to climb above the urgent question of who will succeed him. For a moment he raised politics above the merely temporal."

True Blair deftly avoided some of the mistakes his government had made and the morass into which it had now and then slipped, though he did defend his decision to go to war in Iraq in support of Britain's transatlantic partner.

While not everyone will be convinced with Blair's argument that it was not anything the west did that brought on Islamic terrorism, his performance on behalf of the Labour Party would be a hard act to follow.