What a difference a year makes.
Twelve months ago, Keir Starmer was being heckled from the floor as he delivered his party conference speech.
There was no need for any pre-rehearsed put-downs this year.
In a mercifully-shorter address to the party faithful, Starmer did what he had to do - present himself as a competent alternative to the ongoing Tory chaos while throwing just enough left-wing meat to keep delegates happy.
So we had the announcement that a Labour government would create a state-run green energy company - a policy that received the loudest of several standing ovations.
His attacks on Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax cut for the rich also went down very well, as did Starmer’s pledge to reverse and spend the cash on “our NHS”.
But in a sign of his renewed confidence, Starmer also felt able to tell the Labour rank-and-file - most of whom would have campaigned for Remain in 2016 - that his government would “make Brexit work”.
The applause for that was more muted than what had gone before, but by that time - approaching the end of his 50-minute address - those in the hall had already made up their mind that they were watching the UK’s next prime minister.
Speak to older heads here in Liverpool and they will blanche at the suggestion a Labour victory at the next election is inevitable.
Indeed, Shabana Mahmood, the party’s campaigns co-ordinator, told HuffPost UK that the party still had a “mountain to climb” before Starmer is given the keys to Number 10.
But with YouGov giving Labour a 17-point lead in their latest poll this morning, some wild optimism is understandable.
Starmer’s steady, don’t-scare-the-horses approach may not set many pulses racing outside the conference hall, but the party is banking on voters welcoming it as a welcome alternative to the never-ending government chaos.
