Maybe it was because the government of Gibraltar held a reception there beforehand, but the temperature in the Imperial hotel room for a BBC World at One fringe event, entitled "David Cameron - out of touch with his own party?", was unbearably hot and steamy.
By contrast, the audience was so cool and unflustered that I was left wondering whether the event was a stage-managed affair to show greater levels of unity and consensus about their leader's performance than recent rows about grammar schools policy, and unease over proposed green taxes suggest.
The fact that the fringe, chaired by Newsnight's Martha Kearney, was being recorded for the BBC, did nothing to quell that speculation.
The speakers -Tory culture spokesman Jeremy Hunt, shadow justice spokesman Nick Herbert, Tim Montgomerie, founder of Conservativehome, and Spectator columnist Peter Oborne, seemed satisfied that Mr Cameron is by and large is doing well and has the party behind him. None of the questions from the very hot mass in the room seemed to suggest otherwise.
Tim Montgomerie, who conducts a monthly poll of 1,500 Tory voters for his website, said true blue Tories are far more mainstream and liberal than we think.
Grassroots concerns range from stock Conservative issues such as the economy, immigration, and crime, to more centrist concerns pushed under Mr Cameron's modernisation agenda, notably health, and climate change.
Europe is apparently not seen as a red line issue, he insisted, despite previous rows over this subject matter in the past, as William Hague can painfully testify. But green taxes haven't gone down a treat, and he talks far too little about immigration, just as his predecessor Michael Howard talked about it far too much.
Nevertheless, the "rebalancing"of traditional and change issues, such as climate change and "wellbeing", is on the right course even if the expectation of a snap election has forced this "rebalancing" process to accelerate.
A warning shot is that rank-and-file Tories are a little bit sceptical about the claim that reduced family taxation will offset increased green taxes.
Peter Oborne said David Cameron made the mistake of slavishly following Tony Blair's brutal approach to party modernisation and treating members of his own party "like a lot of rubbish". But 18 months on, "I sense the Tory grassroots are in line".
As you would expect, the two shadow ministers insisted Mr C was tapping into the priorities of the nation's voters, which included tax breaks to support the institution of marriage.
The only controversial line was poor Ms Kearney, who was lambasted by a ferocious woman over alleged BBC bias.
Indeed, the angry woman spent precious airtime complaining about lack of balance when the BBC was devoting a whole hour to pick up Tory views of their leader. Mr Hunt waded in, blaming the BBC for making out all politicians are "lying bastards". "The BBC doesn't report the political culture, it creates it," he said.
It seems if there is an election, and the Tories don't win it, they, at least, will know where to point the finger.
