There is another day to go but already the Labour conference seems to have been going on for ever and the dividing line between reality and nightmare is starting to blur.

Stumbling down to breakfast, I discovered that the hotel dining room had been invaded by Lord Mandelson and about 50 cameramen and television types, who had dutifully turned up for some publicity stunt involving the minimum wage. A day that starts with a photographer interposing his lens between one’s mouth and one’s muesli is not a day that bodes well.