The Tories have had a successful first full day at their conference in Bournemouth.
The much-mocked "hot topic debates" have proved to be a substantial addition to the conference. Yesterday's heated debate concerned cheap flights, and there were several outstanding contributions from the floor, with the majority of speakers under 40.
Another smart move has been to invite good speakers who are not Conservatives to address conference on some of the key issues.
Yesterday we had Shami Chakrabati from Liberty getting warm applause for calling Home Secretary John Reid a control freak.
Stephen Bayley made an impassioned address on the need for social responsibility in air travel, pointing to the experience of drink-driving, that social stigma is a stronger factor than taxation or legislation in changing behaviour.
The keynote speech was from David Davis, and he gave a crowd-pleasing turn, with the best joke so far: "The papers claim David Cameron wants us to hug a hoodie. Well I support that. The only difference between David and me is that I might just hug a little harder. And a little longer."
The debate on the environment saw a polished performance for Ecology totty Zac Goldsmith, and started tongues wagging that he might be tempted into standing as a new 'green conservative' at the next election.
It was not all good news - a screw-up with security has left hundreds of delegates stranded outside the conference as the local Plods try to process their pass applications. Some party activists have been waiting for two days. The local police blame Conservative Central Office for not submitting the paperwork in good time. CCO are implicitly saying that the police are to blame. Whatever. Still makes the party look like they can't organise a party conference in Bournemouth, which is even easier than a piss-up in a brewery.
Then little Georgie Osborne seems to be in a bit of bother over some throwaway remarks he made at a fringe meeting. It seems calling someone 'a bit autistic' is causing deep offence among the charitarati, with yet more unrepresentative voluntary organisations bleating about how Osborne was as much as using the word spastic.
Perhaps if the Shadow Chancellor had anything meaningful to say about the economy, the press would be less interested in this trivial story.
