Day one of the Labour conference ended last night with at least a minor setback for Mr Tony Blair, when Mr Peter Mandelson, Minister without Portfolio and one of Mr Blair's closest aides, failed in his attempt to win a seat on the party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).
To add insult to Mr Mandelson's injury, the party's grassroots rejected the man credited with much of Labour's election triumph and instead backed the veteran left-winger, Mr Ken Livingstone.
Supporters like Mr Neil Kinnock immediately observed that Mr Mandelson had polled well in his first attempt to win a seat on the NEC - it took Mr Kinnock himself three attempts. However, Mr Livingstone, who joins fellow left-wingers, Mr Dennis Skinner and Ms Diane Abbot, on the NEC, said the result was a warning to the Prime Minister. "Blair's no fool," he said: "He'll look at this and recognise it's a little prod from the rank-and-file to say `you haven't got a blank cheque. You're there to do better. You'll always be under pressure to do better'."
Mr Mandelson took his defeat on the chin, thanked his supporters and ventured that "a bit of humility" was a good thing for a politician.
But the deep, personal snub to one of Labour's master tacticians followed a distinctly cool conference reception for Chancellor Gordon Brown, and helped take some of the gloss off the leadership's victory in a series of votes on further internal party reform.
Dr Mo Mowlam emerged as one of the conference darlings, being greeted with warm cheers even as she went to the rostrum to steer through changes which many activists believe will further erode "the sovereignty" of conference.
The platform argued that the changes - which will end the spectacle of last-minute haggling over composite motions in smokefilled rooms and place policy making in the hands of a rolling two year forum - were essential to prevent potential conflicts between Mr Blair as party leader and as head of government answerable to the wider electorate.
Mr Blair declared himself delighted with the result which gave him a three-to-one majority: "The modernising process didn't stop on May the 1st. It goes on."
However, the tensions and potential conflicts between Labour modernisers and the Old Left were palpable during Chancellor Brown's speech, which the delegates conspicuously failed to reward with a standing ovation.
Mr Brown delivered his muchtrailed promise to restore Labour's historic commitment to full employment in the next century. But the "Iron Chancellor" delivered a no-nonsense warning to his party not to expect him to bow to pressures over public sector pay and spending.
The representatives of five million public sector workers and the leaders of the main unions heard Mr Brown declare that this government would not make the mistakes of Labour administrations in 1964 and 1974 by spending as if the party had only just begun.
And in a warning to his cabinet colleagues - some of whom are enraged at his insistence on curbing their £16,000 salary increases - Mr Brown insisted that "pay settlements right across the board" would be guided by his commitment to fairness and firmness. As he told them two years ago: "You cannot build the New Jerusalem on a mountain of debt."