| Morning, Conference season has now drawn to a close, allowing us to take stock of the state of the main political parties.
UKIP remains in perpetual turmoil and is close to turning its rather anarchic approach to politics into something of an art form.
The Lib Dems can take comfort they are winning again at a local level but know the rebuilding of their party will be a painstaking process.
Labour’s conference in Liverpool underlined they are now effectively two parties locked in an unhappy marriage.
One side was in mourning for a party that used to win general elections, the other celebrated its rebirth as democratic socialist movement under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Curiously, Owen Smith popped up on the radio this morning to lead the attack on Theresa May’s speech.
The defeated leadership contender questioned the Prime Minister’s claim she would fight injustice and inequality while pursuing punitive welfare cuts.
Though he did remind his Labour colleagues that politics is “fought and won on the centre ground.”
You could not fault Mrs May’s speech for boldness.
The central question is whether she will be able to deliver on her promises, especially when the country will be wrestling with the consequences of Brexit.
The Prime Minister’s compassion may be genuine but it is not clear if it is matched by an equally over-arching imagination.
You were left with the sense that when she talked about a country that worked for everyone it was limited to the everyone she knew and understood. Jeremy Corbyn is giving the Jimmy Reid memorial lecture in Scotland today.
Reid led the famous shipbuilders’ “work in” on Clydeside in the early 1970s which saw the workers lock out the management to keep the dockyards in operation.
You can read more about him here.
At some point in the next few days the Labour leader will turn his attention to completing his Shadow Cabinet.
Parliament resumes on Monday and at the moment the opposition still lacks a full complement on its frontbenches.
Mr Smith confirmed he was not returning to the shadow Cabinet but the Corbyn team is still confident others who resigned in the summer will come back to the fold. If you want to get in touch my email is jason.beattie@mirror.co.uk and you can follow us @mirrorpolitics on Twitter.
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