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Making it to the great city of the North - no, not Bangor - is one thing.

Tapping into the message of loyalty, be it for now/ until Glenrothes/until Christmas/until the Spring European elections is easy enough. It's on every corner, in every interview recorded. Plugging into the chat afterwards in the cafes and bars of Manchester - 'he's going, just not yet' - is easy too.

Logging in? Now that's another matter but at last, here we go.

Welsh night, as my colleague reports, was an 'up and at 'em' kind of night. A rousing speech from Gordon Brown was followed by a rousing speech from Jane Hutt - not a line you get to type every day.

The Prime Minister's sin of omission - "thanks to our hardworking MPs, MEPs and councillors" - had AMs shifting uncomfortably until "Rhodri and his administration" got a mention. "Thank God for that" whispered one MP who'd seen the official protest coming.

The tribute to Glenys Kinnock was heartfelt. Neil was in tears: "That's why I love 'er!" The man standing just behind me was moved to join in. "We all love 'er Neil!"

The attack? That's easy too - that was directed towards the Tories, the party that hasn't changed, whose commitment to hard-working families, to the NHS is all a scam to win the next election.

"The Tory values may not have changed but, luckily, neither have ours". That was from Huw Lewis, addressing conference this morning but not, let's be clear, in any way inching towards any kind of leadership bid. Neither was Carwyn Jones last night as he worked the room, or should that be marquee. Neither was Leighton Andrews. No sign of Andrew Davies in Manchester, or of Edwina Hart who, the story goes, has heard one simple message from all directions this Summer: she's simply got to stand.

If she does, the race gets intriguing. If she's minded not to? Well then what she does about strikes me as equally intriguing.

But then any attempt at bidding for the leadership has been banned by the Welsh Executive, who spelled out to the entire Labour group of AMs a little while ago that it's the Executive and no-one else who fires the starting gun on that particular race.

I hear they have a meeting on October 18th to thrash out the final rules and regulations surrounding the race for the leadership, the one that hasn't started yet and will only start when they say so ... easier said than done.

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