DANGER FROM THE PARTY

By Ray Fleming AFTER an almost unbroken run of easy-riding Labour Party Conferences since he became leader of the party, Tony Blair may find out this week what these annual gatherings were like for Hugh Gaitskell, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Neil Kinnock in the times of hostile unions, troubled constituency parties and restless MPs. Much will depend on which resolutions the shadowy ”conference arrangements committee” decides to allow on the agenda; early indications are that it will do all it can to help Mr Blair but at the time of writing it is not known whether a debate on the Iraq war will be called. If it is, there will be a succession of speakers denouncing the Prime Minister's alliance with the Bush administration and questioning the validity of his arguments for going to war. Whatever other successes Mr Blair may have at the Conference on UK issues and a great deal can be achieved by clever wording of resolutions - a defeat at the hands of his own party on Iraq would be a very serious blow for him. There were new opinion polls all over the place yesterday morning, with something for almost everyone. A Mori poll for the ITAL/Financial Times/ attracted a lot of attention with its finding that ”half the British public believe Blair should quit”. But this opinion was not the respondents' free choice among other options; they were asked if they agreed with the statement that ”it's now time for Tony Blair to resign and hand over to someone else” – a formulation that puts the idea into the respondent's head. Still, there is no doubt that the Prime Minister is in some danger - and more so this coming week from his own party than from the political opposition.