Labour: Straight talking or old politics?

Labour's slogan for this party conference is "straight talking, honest politics". No more spin, no more soundbites.

Instead a new era of internal democracy and open dissent. Let a thousand flowers blossom! The phrase "the line to take" will from henceforth be banished from Labour's discourse, to be heard only at parties dedicated to the memory of Piers Gaveston.

A new politics is what the public want and Jeremy Corbyn is what they will get.

And yet for all this, the new regime appears to be finding it hard to shed the old politics. How much straight talking is really going on? What's Labour's economic policy? Well, there'll be a review, a public consultation.

What taxes would the party change? A new panel of experts will advise. Where are they on Syria? Pro safe havens, but vague on airstrikes. Would Labour renew Trident? Mr Corbyn says that's a "philosophical question". Constitutional reform? Let's have a national convention. Independence for Scotland? That's a matter for Scottish Labour. And so on.

Now on one level this is smart politics. If this week is designed to reassure voters frightened by what they read in the papers, why should Mr Corbyn rush his fences? Why establish positions in the early flush of electoral success that he might come to regret?

And if he is promising a new inclusive politics, what sense would there be in "Moses" McDonnell coming down to conference with a new dogma carved out on tablets of stone? The bold poetry of the campaign inevitably subsides into the cautious prose of power.

Yet this less than straight-talking politics is not without risk. New party leaders, so the truism goes, have only a short window to define themselves in the eyes of the electorate. And if Mr Corbyn fails to provide some policy clarity and direction, then he provides a chance for his opponents to define him.

For example, many voters - if they have read anything about Mr Corbyn's economic policy from his opponents in the press - might think that all he wants to do is raise taxes and print money. Unless the Labour leader acts to challenge that impression soon, it might prove harder to dispel in later months.

There will also come a time when this period of what Adam Boulton at Sky News calls "bemused tolerance" will have to come to an end. Positions will have to be adopted. Democracy will have to become decision. And Labour MPs say this is not something that can be put off forever. They are beginning to think already about next May's local, national and London mayoral elections. What will Labour's platform be?

So there are two debates taking place at this Labour conference. On one side, the new leadership is trying to sketch out its plans to change the Labour Party and harness the support that Mr Corbyn inspired during the leadership contest.

The new influx of Corbynistas and assorted leftist groups are flexing their muscles and dusting off old pamphlets for inclusion in the ever-expanding policy debate. And on the other, many nervous Labour MPs are trying to work out what it was that got their leader elected, what it means for their politics and how they can ensure that Labour focuses on working out becoming electable in 2020.

In an era of growing disillusion towards politics, voters might like Mr Corbyn's attempt at straight-talking, honest politics. But voters also like to know what politicians and parties believe in. At some point, the Labour leader's policy blossom will have to bear fruit. And that is when the reckoning will be had.