DELEGATES to the Labour Party conference in Brighton today will no doubt savour the occasion of it being the first for 19 years that the party has held while in government.

And after the ending of Labour's long wilderness years by its spectacular May 1 general election victory, they can be forgiven a sense of heady triumphalism.

Yet, neutral observers may be in for a disappointment this week - in that the event turns out to be dull.

For the hallmark of every Labour conference during those out-of-power years was controversy, in-fighting and good, old-fashioned rows.

Can we expect that now that Labour has scaled the rocky mountain, runs a slick and cohesive party machine that has no room for mavericks and, moreover, basks in such popularity that controversy now adheres to the party as water does to a duck's back? Indeed, the only cloud hanging over the Brighton victory-rally conference seems be that of protest over the introduction of tuition fees for higher education - and that obstacle may yet be easily overcome by being presented as an example of Labour's readiness to take tough decisions.

As for the rest, it seems that the week may have a going-from-strength-to-strength theme as the confidence that massive-majority power has given the party restores the commitment to full employment and dangles the prospect of a 10p starting rate for tax before the charmed electorate.

Though this week at Brighton may be full of such dazzle, we may have to wait for the Tory show next week at Blackpool for the real stuff of politics - the entertaining rows and recriminations Labour used to specialise in.

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