New Labour may not yet have learned to love Mr Peter Mandelson, spin doctor and campaign strategist supreme. But they adore his creation, writes Frank Millar.Through lunchtime yesterday, outside the conference centre and adjacent cinemas, they queued to pay homage to the man who gave them their first general election victory in five, and who would promise them his would be a government remembered for all time.
But first there was a call for humility. Mr Mandelson had professed some knowledge of this on Monday night, after the not-so-loyal delegates rewarded him by giving his earmarked seat on the national executive (NEC) to the veteran left-winger, Mr Ken Livingstone. Mr Blair's, as befits the victorious, was the more convincing.
He remembered first to thank the British people. Then the party activists and volunteers. And, even, those who led before him.
Emotion swept the auditorium as he turned to Mr Neil Kinnock: "The mantle of prime minister was never his. But I know that without him, it would never have been mine."
The roll call embraced Lord Jim Callaghan (not always a popular figure at these gatherings), the late John Smith, and Mr Michael Foot. Mr Blair owed him a particular debt of honour because "you led this party when, frankly, it was incapable of being led, and without ever losing a shred of your decency or your integrity".
But it wasn't all mushy. He had to thank the Tories, too: "Let's be honest. We'd never have done it without them.
"And then, of course, it's a fresh start now - with Michael Howard, John Redwood, Peter Lilley and Brian Mawhinney." Sorry, "Sir" Brian Mawhinney, rewarded for services to the Conservative Party. Mr John Prescott, confided Mr Blair, thought he deserved a peerage for services to the Labour Party.
Then it was time to get serious. Mr Blair had a project, to lead Labour to an unprecedented second successive election victory.
What a party that would be. They would prove not simply better than the Tories but "one of the truly great, radical, reforming governments of our history."
They would preside over an era of enlightened patriotism; building a society for the many, not the few; leading Britain in the Giving Age; providing a burning beacon for the world at large.
But as Mr Blair (modesty suspended) listed the cracking pace of achievements to date, one began to fear they might eventually run out of things to do.
Things happen quickly under New Labour. Given the extraordinary results from their summer school concept, indeed the target of an extra 500,000 going into higher education by the year 2002 seemed distinctly lacking in ambition.
One woman wrote to Mr Blair telling him of her son's experience under this Blairite project:
"Each afternoon I collected him from school. By the fourth day the change was showing in Stephen. His enthusiasm grew, confidence gained, his ability to read, write, spell, and question politely, was amazing."
Just amazing. But what would the miracle workers do on the fifth, sixth and seventh days, one wondered?
At this rate of progress, the thought occurred that maybe Dr Mowlam had displayed undue caution when suggesting it might take to Christmas to reach agreement at the Stormont talks.