The Labour Party conference began in the aftermath of the Scottish referendum, amid concerns that Britain may join the US in bombing the Islamic State. Here, in the first of her conference season reports, our observer finds a leader short on ideas to match the gravity of the time The curtains have lifted once again on the domestic political conference season. It may have been something of a surprise, after the excitement of the Scottish referendum, for the public to be reminded that normal service was unexpectedly being resumed – that the party- conference circus was rolling into town with all its traditional acts apparently lined up for parade and performance, for all the world as if everything in international and British affairs were in place, just as it should be. All that was