I agree.  Things are looking very dark indeed and this is Brown's very last chance to get the depth of alienation with Labour's policy direction that exists in the country.  If he thinks he can just put his head down and battle through until some economic upturn he's totally deluded and we're going to go down to a defeat that would make 83 look like a walk in the park.

So where to from here:

1) Make it clear that ordinary working people won't be made to carry the full burden of irresponsible financial lending, and the spike in energy and food costs.  Put an immediate windfall tax on the mulitnational energy suppliers and agribusinesses.  Make sure that all public sector pay settlements at least match the RPI rate of inflation, and ensure that public sector chief execs' pay remains in line with this. 

2) Break with the neoliberal "markets are best" philosophy and have a night of the long knives in terms of cabinet members most closely associated with it - make it clear that John Hutton, James Purnell and their ilk do not represent Labour thinking when they congratulate the millionaires and attack benefits claimants. Ditch the Freud proposals.  Sack Digby Jones and bring trade unionists, NGO heads and environmentalists into government instead.

3) Embrace democracy - both in the party and the country as a whole.  Allow party members and activists a direct say in policy making - ditch PiP/NPF and allow conference to have real debates on policy. Ditch the FPTP electoral system that is giving us a two tier democracy where voters in safe seats - eg. tradtional Labour supporters - are taken for granted, whilst all the parties compete for a few thousand swing voters in marginals. Embrace an agenda of industrial democracy and give people more of a say about their places of work

4) Start demonstrating that we value young people - we don't think of them all as yobs and hoodies with ASBOs - but that we think of them as citizens with views and interests fo their own.  Demonstrate this by reducing the voting age to 16.

5) Commit to a major programme of social housing investment and a state-funded system of loans to first-time buyers- funded by scrapping Trident renewal.

6) Protect employees rights at work - except EU working time directive in full, and improve protection for temporary and agency workers.  

7) Have a package of reforms aimed to support pensioners with food and fuel costs

None of these measures are backward looking, return to the 1970s style rhetoric.  They are concrete measures that the government could take to restore people's faith that Labour is back on their side.

I fear we will see no such thing.  But I hope that - if that does prove to be the case (and he has until conference to show he's finally "got it" - someone has the courage to come forward and challenge Brown directly on a progressive policy platform.  Otherwise we face not just a defeat, but a defeat that is so resounding we might never recover.