This is my second Labour Party Conference and aside from the awful stodgy food, sleep deprivation and chilly seaside wind, it's great to be here and i've met some fascinating people.

As the Evening Standard's news man here, I am able to take a sideways look at the whole circus and report on the news outside of the political agenda and endless party gossip.
So here's ten facts that may or may not help us understand the people running our country a little bit more. Make of them what you will...

1. There is no official Labour Party merchandise on sale this year featuring a picture of Gordon Brown. In previous years, mugs featuring the face of Tony Blair were a bestseller. At last year's Conservative Party conference, Boris Johnson mugs were also a big money spinner. But you won't find GB's mug on a mug.

2. There is no prayer room on site for Muslim delegates and party members. Some have privately complained to me at having to exit and then re-enter the secure zone after going back to their hotel rooms to pray. The Labour Press Office have been unable to tell me why this provision has not been set up.

3. There are between five and ten policeman here whose sole job is to stand on the seafront near the Highcliffe hotel (where Gordon et al are staying)  and stare at the sea - possibly looking out for 'terrorist frogmen'.

4. Former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett happily posed for a photo with a champagne flute in her hand. at the New Statesman bash.  However, probably wary of being dubbed a 'champagne socialist' Health Secretary Alan Johnson preferred to hide his flute behind his back as he smiled for our photographer. (see picture).

5. For the second year running, Keith Vaz held his traditional 'Diversity Nite', celebrating Cultural Diversity in the Labour Party, at a Chinese Restaurant. This despite there still being no MP's of Chinese origin in British politics.

6. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has 965 friends on Facebook. Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain has 1,020. Culture Secretary James Purnell has 354.
Labour Party outcast and ex Celebrity Big Brother contestant George Galloway has 3,480 friends..and counting.

7. Ken Livingstone bemoans the fact that you cannot get a cappucino at 8am on the Bournemouth seafront. This, he says, would not be a problem in London. A cappucino in the conference area, by the way, costs a whopping £2.60 and even some MPs have complained to one amused coffee shop manager.

8. Amongst the various zones Labour has created in the vast Bournemouth International Centre, is an International Lounge.  When you go in through the door abruptly signposted with the words  'International Visitors Only', various people from all over the world are sat, on different tables. There are Americans, Kenyans, Indians and Australians to name a few. But nobody gets what the point of the lounge is. "At the very least they could have put a world clock on the wall,' one Iraqi visitor told me.

9. Gordon Brown may have basked in a four-minute standing ovation following his speech, but it pales in comparison to the seven minute applause Blair's farewell speech got last year and is only one minute longer than the ovation he got after his own speech in 2006. Brown's advisors were hoping it would last longer than the five minute mark.

10. On the agonisingly slow train I took from London Waterloo to Bournemouth, which was packed with journalists, politicians and delegates, the driver announced that the buffet car was no longer serving any food, coffee, tea or soft drinks - just booze. Everyone in my carriage cheered.

FEW would knock a  festival that sets out to celebrate the culture of a diverse and fascinating country, but India Now has been a major disappointment.

I had been looking forward to 'the Mayor's India season' launched to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the country's independence, but as this Indian Summer draws to an end I can't help but feel...well..cheated.

It all just seems to have been a big marketing gimmick and a browse on the Visit London website has not allayed my suspicions. It shows that the majority of events placed within the India Now banner were either scheduled as part of other festivals (such as Manish Arora's catwalk shows at the V&A) or are existing annual events in the capital (such as the London Mela).

The few events that have been put on especially for the India Now season, have fallen way short of the mark by being too focused on Bollywood and relying on cheap publicity stunts.
From C-list Bollywood stars Amrita Arora and Celina Jaitley being flown in (first class of course) to show their faces on Regent Street to a woefully unspectacular replica of the Taj Mahal plonked on the Thames, India Now has paled in comparison to the festival that inspired it.

Last October, the French city of Lille held its own three-month long festival called Bombaysers de Lille (Bombay kisses from Lille) - celebrating the culture and arts of India's most vibrant city.

I was lucky enough to be invited for the launch weekend and what I saw was an entire city made up of almost exclusively white inhabitants unite to learn more about Indian culture and celebrate it together in a show of civic pride which was truly inspiring. (If you want to see what a real celebration looks like go to You Tube and type in 'Lille 3000').

After the launch weekend , which was widely covered by the French media, Bombaysers de Lille continued and thrived throughout the winter.

Indian artists from Chandigarh to Bangalore proudly displayed their work to enthused locals and exhibitions ran in museums displaying the very best of Indian art, culture, architecture and innovation. The city used historical buildings, such as an historic church and the central sorting office of the postal service to display modern and contemporary Indian art to dramatic effect.

If you compare the two festivals,  London has been trounced by Lille - the 2004 European city of culture  -  in a multitude of ways.

Lille had twelve 20ft tall fibreglass elephants (designed by the noted Bollywood set designer Nitin Desai) and the city's main train station was decorated to look like an Indian palace  - both of which provided a stunning focal point for the ensuing festivities.
London allowed the festival to take over Regent Street for one day.

Lille had 1,500  residents dressed up in Indian costume and 25,000 revellers partying to Bollywood music in two main squares until 4 am  - in October!

London had  'dancers' going up and down ropes for a few hours each evening for a week on Trafalgar Square watched by a few hundred people - in August.

Lille had screenings of over 500 Bollywood movies but also placed special emphasis on a season celebrating the work of the heavily censored Indian film-maker Anand Patwardhan and innovative directors such as Mira Nair and Guru Dutt.

London chose the universally-panned Mighty Ducks rip off 'Chak De India' for the showpiece screening of an Indian film in the courtyard of Somerset House, probably for the 'star power' of actor Shah Rukh Khan.

So why did London get it so wrong? I offer many reasons.

Some of the partner organisations selected for India Now have raised eyebrows.
Why is the official media partner the BBC Asian Network - a station which is only available on DAB in London and therefore has more listeners concentrated in the Midlands?
The BBC's involvement has also been at the behest of London's 'grass roots' community stations such as Punjab Radio, Club Asia and Sunrise - who have been banned from broadcasting from events such as the London Mela in Ealing.

The season has thus provoked resentment from the very people who promote a host of Asian-related activity that goes on in London every year, with or without the Mayor slapping a brand name on it.

The  perceived 'aloofness' of India Now is also not helped by the fact that businesses in areas such as Southall and Wembley have benefited very little from it, as City Hall focused on roping in organisations in central London.

Why didn't they take the festival into the heart of London's Indian communities, and promote areas such as Southall Broadway and Ealing Road as real tourist attractions? India Now has been spread too thin over three months across a huge city.
The slant towards Bollywood is predictable and cheap and came despite a vow to celebrate the culture of India.

Where are the events celebrating the culture of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bengal and the Gujarat?
Furthermore a launch weekend, with several attention-grabbing events taking place in proximity (a la Lille) would have drawn in people across London, which India Now has largely failed to do.

Some would argue that anything promoting Indian culture In London can only have a positive effect on community cohesion and integration.

But surely Britain's large and influential Indian community have gone beyond the stage of being thankful for anything that promotes our culture.

London, for all its reputation as the world's most vibrant, multicultural city and Ken Livingstone, who revels in his image of being the great celebrator of this diversity, should have put on an Indian Summer to remember - and not one overshadowed by our friends across the channel.

Amar Singh is the Evening Standard's media correspondent.  Spanning politics, crime, sports and business Amar has covered a vast range of stories and events for the paper since joining in 2005.
He now covers all things media and entertainment  - from the trials and tribulations of the BBC to the latest tirade from Heather Mills.
You can email him at amar.singh@standard.co.uk