Denied any really bad news all week, the media were finally able to serve it up to Tony Blair and his ministers by the plateful yesterday.
This was the week the Prime Minister declared the class war over: his last gesture to Old Labour values was continued permission to close conference in the traditional manner with the singing of The Red Flag.
But as he and his colleagues prepared to depart a trouble-free Bournemouth, news flashed through of the French government's decision to maintain the ban on British beef. Whatever the rest of the EU may have determined, the French, noting insufficient scientific guarantees, clearly aren't persuaded the British have BSE under control.
So the Agriculture Secretary, Mr Nick Brown, had to delay his lunch to respond to this double blow; to Britain's beef exporters, and to ministers for whom the lifting of the ban had been proclaimed one of Labour's great achievements since taking power.
That other great achievement, the Belfast Agreement, didn't warrant a direct reference during Mr Blair's big speech on Tuesday afternoon. Indeed Northern Ireland occupied just 12 lines in an oration otherwise remarkable for its evangelical and aspirational tone.
Right-wing commentators are almost certainly wrong in detecting here Mr Blair's notorious suspicion of failure, and his readiness to distance himself from it. But his failure to praise Dr Mo Mowlam, so avoiding any repetition of last year's great "Movation", was widely interpreted as a conscious decision by the Blairistas to cut the still-embattled Northern Ireland Secretary down to size.
The press meanwhile gleefully seized the opportunity to deflate John Prescott's sense of himself, after the Deputy Prime Minister's stately procession in two-car convoy the few hundred yards from hotel to conference centre to tell everybody else to make less use of their cars.
Mr Prescott's various gruff explanations - that this was necessary to protect his wife's hairdo, or that the police considered it necessary for his protection (inside a secure zone) - merely added to the hilarity, and doubtless caused the odd snigger inside the Blair camp.
There was no sniping at Gordon Brown, however, following Mr Blair's move to quash suggestions that he was killing off the Chancellor's own leadership ambitions with that avowal to "go on and on and on". Mr Blair said Gordon would make a great prime minister, and Gordon reciprocated by saying he'd stopped answering questions about all that, and was perfectly happy with the job he had.
It was all a touch unconvincing; as much as the notion that Mr Blair might step down in favour of Mr Brown somewhere through a second term. As the Prime Minister spelt out his plans to repel the forces of conservatism, and for a century of the radicals to come, the sense grew of how indispensable he truly appears to the New Labour project.
Mr Brown apart, it is striking how few of Labour's senior ministers really impress as front-rank politicians. Mr Michael Meacher might slip further down the ranks if there are too many gaffes like the one suggesting the government might ban people having second homes. Hardly the kind of message Mr Blair wants to give those Conservatives he thinks could now find a home with New Labour.
Meanwhile, Dr Jack Cunningham's exact location in the ranks continues to excite some Labour MPs convinced that Dr Mowlam will become party chairman, and that he would be an ideal replacement for her.
As cabinet enforcer, Dr Cunningham closed conference yesterday with a warning that victory at the next election was not a foregone conclusion. "Tomorrow is ours to win or lose," he declared.
But his fears will almost certainly prove groundless if Mr Blair's post-conference message proves justified. While not in a position yet to know the precise options available, Mr Blair said it was not an "either-or choice" between tax cuts and increased spending on public services.
Tory swing voters wouldn't have liked the spectacle of Old Labourites booing kids from a private school on Wednesday afternoon. But Mr Blair's assurance that it would be "bizarre" to oppose tax cuts in principle should keep them happy in those key "Tory" seats.