Even in the Thatcherite glory days, Tory backbenchers were notoriously reluctant to waste their own money attending the party’s annual conference. In Manchester, they seem even fewer than usual. “There’s hardly anyone here from my intake,” whispers a class of 2010 minister, though eager look-at-me MPs first elected this year are visible. Those who are female, northern, grew up on a council estate or went down the pit aged 12 even get a platform spot. It allows them to introduce fast-track colleagues of Etonian heritage such as Boris and Zac.
Controlling immigration (speeches)
Was BoJo none too subtly undermining Theresa May’s tough immigration speech when he invoked his Turkish great-grandfather on Tuesday? Fearing for his life, the journalist Ali Kemal fled to Britain in 1909, married Winifred Johnson, founded a dynasty, then went home again in 1912 when he thought it was safe – just what Theresa wants temporary asylum seekers to do now. Alas, Kemal backed the wrong side in Turkey’s post-Ottoman upheavals. Kidnapped in 1922, he was beaten to death and hanged from a tree. “ A fate I intend to avoid,” Johnson told the conference. Don’t put that to a vote, Boris.
Secure borders
With a staggering 12,000 activists, lobbyists, VIPs and media accredited to the conference, queues to get through security might have been long. Party HQ made them longer by taking the organising task away from outside contractors and bringing it inefficiently back in-house. Pure Corbynism. The ring of steel has just one entry point, like the Channel tunnel. Since seating in the main hall has also been shrunk to make the crowd scenes look bigger, huge queues form inside for star speakers.
Pitch perfect
Football hardman and wannabe London mayor Sol Campbell knows how to behave like a gent. Unlike Tory junior ministers with a sense of entitlement, the former Spurs and England player refused a copper’s invitation to jump the queue to get into the conference, preferring to wait his turn with fellow delegates. Team player.
Musical cheers
Some conference delegates slipped off to witness a boost for George Osborne’s northern powerhouse in an unlikely setting on Monday night. Admirers of Michael Kennedy, the much-loved music critic and northern editor of the Telegraph who died in December, had organised a dazzling memorial concert at the Royal Northern College of Music. A host of stars flew in to perform. Kennedy’s widow, Joyce, recalled friends saying: “Of course, the event will have to be in London.” She replied: “No, it will be in Manchester. That’s where Michael lived and worked. The train from London takes the same time as the train from Manchester.” Cue loud Mancunian powerhouse cheers.
Riding out the Stormont
Trying to stay out of trouble and keep her job by saying as little as possible on the conference stage on Wednesday will be the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, whose appointment to the Belfast hotseat has not looked so smart since the Stormont executive imploded amid sectarian recrimination. Expect Nigel Dodds to replace the fading star Peter Robinson as the DUP party leader and powerbroker, while Arlene Foster is confirmed as the token first minister and civil servants continue to run the province. Villiers is safe – until the crisis is over.
Wealthy competition
George praises Boris. Boris is nice about George. David sits in the body of the hall to applaud both rivals’ speeches. But David has fought his last election. When Boris’s entourage and media scrum followed the prime minister’s into the conference centre on Tuesday, it was noticeably larger.
