What planet is Harriet Harman on?

Harriet Harman yesterday gave the closing speech at Labour’s annual conference in Manchester. With the day’s proceedings overshadowed by the news that Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly is to stand down at the reshuffle - expected next week, Harman appeared to have arrived from another planet, or a parallel universe, where the afterglow from Gordon Brown’s stirring speech had not been snuffed out by a return to talk of Labour’s internal civil war.

Harman, not a gifted public speaker at the best of times, said of Gordon Brown: “He has shown that he is the right person to lead the party and the right person to lead this country.”

She claimed the “fight back” against the resurgent Conservatives had begun, saying primly of David Cameron: “He’s the kind of man your mother used to warn you about. He’ll promise you the world. But if he ever got his wicked way with you - in the ballot box - you’d never hear from him again.”

Needless to say, the speech was out of step with the events of the day and Harman’s optimistic swipes at the Conservatives did not get great play in the media.

Here is some of it: