Labour ended its Brighton conference on an emotional high yesterday, with a morale-boosting endorsement by the former South African president, Mr Nelson Mandela, and a traditional call-to-arms by the party's deputy leader, Mr John Prescott.
"Be confident, be proud, walk tall", Mr Prescott told delegates, relieved by a trade union decision to spare the platform a second defeat - this time over vouchers for asylum seekers - and by a MORI poll suggesting a halt to the party's dramatic loss of support.
The poll for the London Times, conducted before Mr Blair's big conference speech on Tuesday, put Labour two percentage points ahead of the Conservatives - but, on 37 per cent, still with its lowest ratings for eight years.
With support shifting equally between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the poll confirmed Mr Blair's satisfaction rating was at its lowest level since 1994, but still not as bad as that of the Tory leader, Mr William Hague, which has dropped from minus 25 to minus 33 points.
Significantly perhaps, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, this week challenged the widespread assumption that the general election will be held next May.
Ministers and Labour strategists will be anxiously awaiting the results of polls conducted after Mr Blair's speech, and following next week's Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, for more sustained evidence of recovery following the revolt over fuel prices and pensions, and a storm of criticism over the Millennium Dome.
Labour delegates were enraptured by Mr Mandela's arrival arm-in-arm with Mr Blair on the platform yesterday, and by his praise for the party for "the spirit that continues to believe that the world can be a better place for all".
Mr Prescott delighted them, too, with a mocking assault on Mr Hague as "14 pints Billy, drunk in charge of a band wagon".
Whatever the timing of the election, Mr Prescott told them, "we must be ready now, ready to go to every part of the country, ready to go to the cities and towns - and, yes, ready to go to the villages and the countryside - to put Labour's case."
As Mr Prescott rallied the troops, however, Mr Blair toured the television studios insisting there would be no change in the government's pension policy, despite its conference defeat on the issue on Wednesday night.
"What we are trying to do is make sure we can do the things people want us to do in the country, but not at the risk of weakening the economy that's the strongest it's been for decades," said Mr Blair.
Mr Blair had earlier avoided a possible second defeat when the Home Office Minister, Ms Barbara Roche, promised to review the controversial system of issuing vouchers to asylum seekers. She made the pledge after Mr Bill Morris, leader of the Transport and General Workers' Union, described the system as "fuel for the ugly face of racism and discrimination".
Mr Morris remitted a composite motion attacking the scheme as conference unanimously backed an NEC statement calling for its "immediate comprehensive review".
Mr Mandela told the conference that AIDS posed a crisis that was too enormous to express in words. He said 10 teachers died every month of AIDS in South Africa while a student dies every week in each university. "In one university, more than 25 per cent of the students are HIV positive," he said.