BECTU at work in Brighton

 Gerry Morrissey speaks to union members.

Yes, there is no question that the mood at the start of this year's Labour Party conference was subdued, but the interests of BECTU members and the bleak prospects for working people under a Conservative government are what drives us on.

Whilst in the conference proper, energies were palpably low over the weekend, yesterday the heat was on as I relayed BECTU's response to the plan for Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, to join the Question Time panel on 22 October.

BECTU's statement  was widely covered and drew more praise than  condemnation. (It is on issues such as this that some members of the public take the time to contact us; I wish we could do more to engage them on the issues we champion daily! Quality jobs and output across the cultural sector).

Shared vision

Whilst business generally appears to have invested less in this year's event than in previous years, I and the resident BECTU team here - which includes the union's president Tony Lennon, vice-president, Lawrence Van Reiss and NEC member Jane Perry - have been pleased to catch up with employers and other industry groups including the BBC, Pinewood Studios, Skillset , Hackney councillors (who share our vision for the legacy use of the Olympic broadcasting centre) and members of our parliamentary panel.

On Monday night, the fringe meeting on illegal filesharing, where our assistant general secretary, Martin Spence, presented the arguments on behalf of the industry, drew a decent attendance and reflected the growing consensus that copyright must not be infringed if the creative industries are to thrive. Emily Bell was an excellent chair.

Tonight, Tuesday, our attention shifts to sports broadcasting and to efforts to extend the list of sports available to the biggest audience, free-to-air.

A levy system can work

Ofcom's PSB Review and more recently Digital Britain, have been uppermost in our minds for many of the past months. We'll be taking a further opportunity at Wednesday's fringe meeting to press our case for levies as a clearly viable alternative source of funding for quality broadcasting outside the BBC.

Courtesy of Peter Mandelson's speech yesterday and of Gordon Brown's today, the Party's leadership is enthusing activists once more. Whilst Labour is currently seen as the election underdog, the desire to give the Tories a fight is returning. Gordon Brown's speech has outlined policy changes that are hugely welcome, such as the abandonment of  the ID card system (during the next parliament at least) and further measures to end hereditary peers.

During the next six months Labour needs to win over its core supporters and show all voters that there is a difference between Labour and the Conservatives and not least when it comes to cuts in the public sector.