Law and order debates at Conservative conferences once brought forth a crowd of activists demanding a return to capital punishment. No more, it appears.
Michael White reports from Birmingham's ICC where party members gave a cautious welcome to plans to get prisoners into work and scale down the numbers of people entering prison.
New Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke says the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke is the man to make much-needed reforms in the prison system.
Home affairs editor Alan Travis has watched the day's developments – he says that law and order debates at the Conservative conference have changed beyond recognition.
And as the season comes to a close, columnist Jonathan Freedland detects an ever-present shadow cast over all three party conferences: that of Tony Blair.
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