John Stevenson on the UNISON When last month David Blunkett came to address local government delegates to UNISON's conference it was rather embarrassing for the platform. Leaping to their feet as one, they tried to lead a standing ovation - but everyone else stayed firmly glued to their seats.
Overall the conference was a low key affair - the sort of atmosphere you might expect when activists carry few illusions in Labour but are at the same time not quite sure what is going to happen in the future.
And about some of it there was a distinct air of unreality. The left pushed for and won a reaffirmation of the union's existing policy of renationalising the privatised utilities.
But in the short term it isn't possible to conceive of UNISON's leadership making this concrete demand of the new government.
There was also the great debate that never was - a motion of censure of the executive for pulling the plug on the Hillingdon Hospital strike. The standing orders committee ruled it out of order ,and an attempt to overturn this was lost on a card vote.
In many ways Hillingdon stands as a symbol of what happened to public services and unions during the Tory years - low paid workers sacked by a private company operating in the Health Service; a union bureaucracy conveniently intimidated by anti-union laws and giving no support to members in struggle.
Now we should be demanding of Labour that all this should change, not standing up and applauding.