TONY Blair was not on hand yesterday to watch Alan Milburn's conference speech. He didn't need to be.

The Health Secretary and Darlington MP has modelled himself so closely on Mr Blair that it might as well have been the Prime Minister giving the speech.

The stance at the wicket, so to speak, is pure Blair. The hand movements are Tony's. All this, and yet human cloning is still supposed to be illegal.

Mr Milburn started with a diplomatic touch, paying glowing tribute to his predecessor, poor old Frank Dobson, who this time last year was Health Secretary.

In fact, 12 months ago, Mr Milburn - then Treasury Chief Secretary - fuelled speculation that he would shortly be getting Mr Dobson's job by conspicuously staying in the conference hall for the health debate.

After fine words for Frank, Alan was off listing a series of initiatives - some new, some not so new - and savaging the Tories.

The written version of Mr Milburn's speech said the Tories had been thrown out in 1997 for "cutting" the health service.

The way Alan pronounced it, it sounded like "killing" the health service.

For the main speakers at this year's conference, there are two high-tech transparent auto-cues in front of the lectern. But Mr Milburn didn't seem to need either of them. He spoke as though he knew his speech by heart.

However, there was a genuine hush in the hall as Mr Milburn broke off from the printed speech to tell the tragedy of how the NHS let down Darlington's Ian Weir.

Again, the technique uncannily echoed the Prime Minister's own divergence from his printed text in his Tuesday speech.

But the effect of a minister connected to the real world by the death of a friend was powerful nonetheless.

Much of the Milburn address was a predictable, knockabout attack on the Tories, but there was a good new gag.

"Today's Tories are the political wing of the private health insurance movement," quipped our Alan, to guffaws from the audience.

He also promised more help for people to give up smoking - understandably forgetting to mention the tobacco-related jobs in his own constituency.

In classic Blair style, Mr Milburn closed with a sort of "this is historic" tone about how it fell to this generation to change the health service for good.

And with that, Alan strode into the inevitable standing ovation - one minute according to my watch and three according to Mr Milburn's advisors - and speculation about his being a Prime Minister in waiting.

But the Health Secretary obviously doesn't copy His Master in every detail.

Tony this Tuesday finished his conference speech drenched in sweat, but Mr Milburn came off with barely a bead.

And afterwards, he opened his suit jacket to show The Northern Echo that, whatever else you can say about this week's Tory conference, you can still be sure with Sure