British Prime Minister Gordon Brown seems to have bought some time after he delivered a combative and forceful speech at his Labour Party conference. His speech rallied the party faithful and boosted his ratings in the polls, even though Labour is still trailing heavily behind the Conservatives. Perhaps most important of all, there were no signs of in-fighting and divisions within the party at the conference. If there is one thing the electorate cannot accept, it is intra-party fighting, and divided parties always lose elections.

This is not to say that Gordon Brown's future as Prime Minister has been secured. Mr Brown seems to have suffered a series of misfortunes ever since he hesitated last year over whether to call an early general election, and was perceived as being weak by the electorate. Recently, a group of rebel Labour MPs publicly called for a leadership challenge, one junior minister resigned and a party vice-chairman was sacked for disloyalty. Coupled with low poll ratings and two recent by-election losses, this was all very bad news for Mr Brown.

The credit crunch and the international economic crisis have certainly not helped Mr Brown and many people in Britain who are facing financial hardships are blaming the government for their problems. The Prime Minister was therefore under pressure to address these concerns at the Labour conference, as well as to reassert his authority over the party.

Mr Brown certainly managed to rally the party behind him, at least for now, and his main message was that he was the right person to lead Britain out of its difficulties and to deal with the global financial crisis. He sold himself as a competent manager of the economy in these troubled times and boasted of his many achievements when he served as Chancellor under Tony Blair.

Perhaps the most memorable part of Mr Brown's speech came when he said "I am all in favour of apprenticeships but, let me tell you, this is no time for a novice" - a direct reference to Conservative leader David Cameron, but perhaps also to his own Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who has been mentioned in the UK press as a potential successor, even challenger, to Gordon Brown.

Mr Miliband, in fact, paid tribute to Mr Brown in his conference speech, urged the party to unite behind its leader and stressed that the Conservatives were beatable. There was no sign of disloyalty in the Foreign Secretary's speech.

An interesting aspect of the Labour conference was the fact that Mr Brown was introduced before he gave his keynote speech by his wife Sarah, an unusual twist in British politics. Mr Brown said his wife's decision to speak was to show that "we are a team". Mrs Brown's speech was warmly received by the conference and also by the UK press. She told delegates she had "asked if I could have the chance today to talk briefly to you" and added: "I am so proud that every day I see him (Gordon Brown) motivated to work for the best interests of people all around the country."

In his speech, Mr Brown spoke many times about "fairness" and combined his portrayal of economic competence with a strong belief in social justice. Whether this will be enough to convince voters is another matter. After all, which political party is going to oppose fairness? Some analysts believe that while the Prime Minister did a good job of keeping the party together, he might have not done enough to convince voters not to abandon Labour, even though his poll ratings increased to 31 per cent after his speech, still way behind the Conservatives.

Mr Brown promised to enshrine in law his pledge to end child poverty, repeated his pledge to extend free nursery places for all two-year-olds over the next 10 years, highlighted a £300 million plan to offer free computers and internet access for children from low income families and said anyone suffering from a long-term illness would be exempt from prescription charges. The Prime Minister also attacked the Conservatives, saying they could not be trusted to run the economy.

I think most analysts would tend to agree that Mr Brown did his best at the conference and that he at least rallied the party behind him. However, there can be no denying that Gordon Brown is a very unpopular Prime Minister and that over the last year or so, British public opinion has shifted away from Labour towards the Conservative Party, whose leader, David Cameron, has done a very good job at making his party electorally appealing once again.

Whether there is anything that Mr Brown can do to halt the shift towards the Conservatives is still to be seen. For the moment he has bought himself a bit of time. A lot will depend on the state of the UK economy and how well the government manages to deal with the international financial crisis. On the other hand, voters could simply be tired of Labour - which has been in power since 1997 - and Britain could have entered a new political cycle which favours the Conservatives. In that case, Gordon Brown's days in office are numbered.