A cabinet minister said she was going
Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary, confirmed she was stepping down at the forthcoming reshuffle. In her speech she said: "I am also proud to be a mother and a wife. To have been able to hold these jobs, I've relied on the support of my husband and my family. So I ask for your understanding when I say that I now owe it to my children and family to take a step back and start putting them first. If I do not, then I know that this is something I will come to regret deeply."
And another cabinet minister said he wanted to stay put
Alan Johnson, the health secretary, told Sky News: "I've got a brilliant ministerial team. I want to stay where I am but it's not within my gift to decide."
Surreal speech-making
"Conference, I hope you will forgive me for departing from my text for a moment," Kelly said. How can we be sure? It's in the text of her speech.
A tribute to Kelly
"As Ruth Kelly has reminded us today, there is no more important job in the world than being a parent," Ed Balls, the children's secretary, said.
Joke of the day: Johnson said in his speech
"Say what you like about Ming Campbell [the former Lib Dem leader] - at least he was well acquainted with the level of the state pension."
People, not props
Brown said that the line in his speech about his children being people, not props, was not aimed at David Cameron. "It's not a swipe at anybody. It's just my own view and Sarah's view," Brown said.
And Cameron's response
At a Tory event, Cameron explained why he was not being introduced by his wife Samantha. It was because she was "my wife, not a prop".
Harriet Harman's lewd comment
"[David Cameron] is the kind of man your mother used to warn you about … He'll promise you the world, promise to make all your dreams come true. But if he got his wicked way with you - in the ballot box - you'd never hear from his again," Harman told the conference.
School dinners all round
Balls and Johnson announced a plan to pilot free healthy school meals for all primary school pupils.
Praise for the miners
Balls told the conference that he was the ninth MP for Normanton, that it had been Labour (or, initially, "Liberal-Labour") since it was created in 1885 (making it, along with Rhondda, the longest continuously-Labour seat) and that all his predecessors were miners. "But they were Labour, because the adversity they suffered taught them not selfishness but solidarity," he said.
A birthday party
The conference held a session to celebrate the 60th birthday of the NHS this year. Apparently, under the NHS, the first hospital in the world to offer free healthcare for all was what is now the Trafford general hospital in Manchester.
