Battling the bounce - the Tory conference
Although Salieri would never admit it, the possibility that the Tory conference would be - well, a bit dull ,was beginning to hang in the air like a nasty smell. Adversity is interesting, dominance isn’t. The polls were fantastic but the leadership would spend all its time looking as uncomplacent and downbeat as possible. And as for the idea that the fringe would be a bubbling fervent of new ideas, backers of that one had obviously forgotten that Tories only have one real idea: getting and staying in power. Ideas are for socialists (and look where they have got us): the Tories are rightly proud of being the stupid party.
But now as Salieri speeds toward Brum (£15 on Virgin for a first-class upgrade - very reasonable) things are livening up. It might be a paradox for Brown to pose as the voice of experience when he landed us in this mess but it seems to have given him a lift. And frankly economics would never be DC’s Mastermind specialist subject. So a lot hangs on whether Gorgeous George can repeat his triumph of last year. It could be very interesting…