THIRTY minutes to the biggest speech in Gordon Brown's life, and the omens are not good.

Doleful-looking delegates sit in their seats and exchange whispered words.

Funk
A pitiful four balloons drift around the hall - batted away in irritation, not celebration. 'That's the Way I Like It' is blaring from the speakers, stuck on constant repeat. Funk for a party in a funk.

A Monty Python-style animation plays on a big screen, flashing up boasts of 12 years of Labour government.

Some raise a cheer: '44,000 more doctors', '2.4m children helped by Sure Start'. Some are just bizarre: 'Iconic modern Architecture', 'Wembley is the tallest covered stadium in the world'.

And then the star of last year's conference takes to the stage. Not Gordon, but his wife, Sarah. In 2008 she helped convince the nation that her husband was not just a politician, but a human being.

Now, though, the nation sees her differently. Not just as a loyal wife, but as a player in the game. She is impressive again in paying tribute to her 'hero'; but she cannot pull off the same magic trick twice.

Then Gordon appears. He looks, and sounds, perfectly calm. But his face betrays the pressure he is under. He offers a few half-hearted jokes, then attacks the Tories on Labour's strongest ground: their handling of the banking crisis.

"The Conservative party were faced with the economic call of the century - and they called it wrong," he thunders. The party is roused. But this is not to be a Tory-bashing speech. On the contrary. It is to be the most policy-heavy leader's address in recent conference history.

The pledges come thick and fast. A vote on proportional representation. The right to recall dodgy MPs. Scrapping hereditary peers within a year. Free childcare for 250,000 under-twos. Cancer diagnosis in a week. Even 'supervised homes' for teenage mothers.

When he mentions Palestine you half expect him to promise to sort that out 'in the current financial year', too. He finishes by beseeching his party to 'dream big dreams' - to 'fight, and win, and serve'. It gets a good, if not ecstatic response.

Nation

In truth, it is a speech for the nation, rather than the party. It is the right kind of speech, too: one which attempts to grab headlines with policies rather than personalities, and which attempts to turn the election into a choice about the future, not the past.

But there are so many policies that even the Labour delegates struggle to see the sense behind them all. It all feels a bit chaotic; it is hard not to come away with the impression that Mr Brown is a man who knows he has too much to do, and very little time.