W HOOPS FILLED the air of a nightclub on the Brighton seafront as John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, walked on stage on September 22nd. The compères of the Radical Variety Show, a side event at Labour’s annual conference, had a surprise for the man who will be in charge of the world’s sixth-largest economy if Labour wins the next election. “Please may I introduce to you, the wheel of public ownership!” one cried. Out came an assistant carrying a Wheel of Fortune-style spinner. On it was a host of things Labour could nationalise: BAE Systems (a defence company); banks; Greggs (a bakery); Heathrow airport. Chuckling, Mr McDonnell gave it a twirl.

Labour’s conference was a mix of radical policy, fights about Brexit and internecine civil war. With the party trailing in the polls and at war with itself once again, MP s and activists moped from stall to stall. Things got off to a bad start when left-wingers on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee launched a botched bureaucratic assassination attempt against Tom Watson, the party’s deputy leader. “It’s the hitman who missed!” shouted Mr Watson at Jon Lansman, the Labour activist who oversaw the attempt, when they bumped into each other.

Labour sorted out its Brexit position, but not without a fight. Delegates at the conference, which sets party policy, narrowly decided that Labour would not campaign to stay in the EU at the next election. Instead it would support a second referendum, with a viable Leave option set against remaining in the union. Although nearly all its MP s, the vast majority of its members and the bulk of its voters support staying in the EU , about a third of its voters at the last election backed Leave.

Since 2017, when Labour promised a hard Brexit, taking Britain out of the single market and customs union and ending the free movement of Labour, the party has softened its stance. At last year’s conference, the mere suggestion of a second vote with Remain on the ballot by Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, triggered an enormous row. Now it is party policy (albeit after another enormous row). A motion calling for free movement to continue after Brexit was also passed. The result is that, in two years, Labour’s Brexit policy has undergone a slow revolution. Nonetheless, many Remainers are cross that the party will go into the next election without a position on how it would campaign in any referendum.

Bureaucratic battles and Brexit almost overshadowed the most radical policy platform put forward by any British political leader since Margaret Thatcher. A target to make Britain carbon-neutral by 2030 was agreed on, even though some union bosses gritted their teeth at the idea. Pharmaceutical companies that tried to gouge patients would have their patents snatched, said Mr Corbyn. Mr McDonnell promised a 32-hour (four-day) working week within a decade—much sooner than the end-of-century deadline proposed by trade unions.

Spending commitments piled up. Labour would dish out 2.5m interest-free loans of up to £33,000 ($40,700) for people to buy an electric car, at a cost of just under £4bn in lost interest. A “People’s Zipcar” was also floated, with Labour promising to introduce a network of pay-as-you-go electric cars across the country. Another £6bn per year would be spent on personal care for the elderly. A scheme to abolish private schools would cost about £4bn per year, if all the pupils were put in state schools. Mr McDonnell casually dropped in a pledge to end in-work poverty within the first term of a Labour government, implying a large rise in in-work benefits.