YESTERDAY at conference I sat through a debate that didn’t happen.

The newspapers had been full of stories of how conference had been barred from debating Brexit but in the morning I sat through a debate on, er Brexit.

It was supposed to be about international affairs in general but apart from the odd mention of the Israel/Palestine, this was an hour of solid Brexit.

A young first-time delegate, Cameron Clack, showing none of the reticence “conference virgins” are supposed to show, laid into Labour’s leadership for ducking a Brexit debate; and in response to some mild barracking said “Come on conference be a bit comradely”.

OK let me ’fess up; the precise debate that was supposed to have been barred was about Brexit in general but the single market – a subject which it is fair to say that Labour has been “constructively ambiguous”.

There had been some concern about the decision to limit the number of bigwig speeches to make space for ordinary delegates – and if this debate was typical, it paid off.

The debate was passionate, good-natured and entertaining.

Darryl Telles from Hove, after having said this was his second conference speech, confessed “I too am a conference virgin”. Delegates were puzzled. “Work it out .. I haven’t got all day,” he quipped. And he went on to tell the conference that the Remain campaign was like the parrot in the famous Monty Python sketch: “...it has ceased to exist, you have as much chance of stopping Brexit as of Jeremy Corbyn (an Arsenal supporter) wearing my Tottenham shirt”.

And there was also a bigwigs bonus for we conference watchers as Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary began her speech with the memorable words: “It’s great to be here in this vibrant city of Bristol.”

  • Ivor Gaber is professor of political journalism at the University of Sussex