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Politics

The hoodie-hugging, Polly-praising, huskie-drawn days are over. The Tories are back

Fraser Nelson

Wednesday, 3rd October 2007

Fraser Nelson on what happened at the Tory conference

For a party still facing defeat at the next general election, the Conservatives left Blackpool feeling remarkably upbeat. ‘It’s the spirit of Gallipoli,’ said a veteran of William Hague’s election campaign. ‘They’re united against Brown,’ mused one shadow Cabinet member. Neither image is quite right. This was no deluded optimism, no awestruck reaction to David Cameron’s speech. The mood at the conference had changed long before he stood up on Wednesday. Something had gone badly right.

The week started with the party in a murderous mood, with talk at the candidates’ party centring on who would replace the evidently doomed Mr Cameron. He had focused too much on image, ran the draft postmortems, without explaining what a Conservative government would do. Parliamentary candidates complained they had no ammunition when they went on the doorsteps, that they would struggle to give a reason for people to vote Tory.

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Anthony Hanwell

October 5th, 2007 1:30pm

Here is one disgruntled long term Tory returned to the fold. At last we know what a Government or a Government in waiting might actually DO! I was just girding my loins to protest at the whole political class by voting UKIP at the next opportunity, when along comes Cameron and says what we have all been waiting to hear. In the nick of time!

David Buckle.

October 15th, 2007 8:21pm

Gordon Browns' only mistake was not to announce there would not be a general election two days before the Tory Conference. Had he done so, the right wing of the Tory Party would have torn Cameron to bits. G Brwon saved Cameron for the malling he will get from the Tory Right,given time Cameron knows that his time will come as that Party always stabs its leaders in the back.