The past week has offered the Tories a chance to hone their analogy skills on two fronts. The return of Mandelson, “He’s like a rat joining a sinking ship” And Brown’s financial crisis, “He’s like an arsonist who comes with a hose pipe and says look at me I’m putting out the fire”. Some of them have been quite creative, “Like a Tory with endless analogy possibilities”

There had [...]

Tories leave Birmingham after a strange conference, emerging from the bubble. One Parliamentary Candidate described the round of sedate parties, lack of whoopee and absent feral behaviour as, "Must have been what it was like to be at a garden party in 1914, you know that something unpleasant is brewing, you just don’t know what."

There was certainly a feeling of preparation in Birmingham, the machine is working. Many candidates [...]

Tick after tock, the long, long wait for David Cameron's speech began on Saturday night. Some of us had forgotten why we were here: surely another argument for conference duration to be halved. The Tories should lead the way next year.

In Birmingham we exist in a rather cosseted way. The exhibition centre has a small connecting bridge to the conference hotel, so it is quite possible to stay here [...]

Last year Conservative delegates were positively encouraged to drink champagne, to show a "business as usual" attitude during the excruciating four-day wait for David Cameron's clincher speech. They did this with aplomb, standing outside the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool till the wee small hours, smiling, shivering, displaying the Dunkirk spirit that Tories are so good at.

This year there is a different feel. "We should be slightly cautious that [...]

The focus on all things "new Tory" has continued over this dank British summer, and has now given rise to a play, Tory Boyz, at the Soho Theatre in London's West End. The opening night on 18 August drew a large, very excitable crowd, as well-cut suits mingled with extra-tight Abercrombie & Fitch polo shirts, worn a size too small, for that ultimate muscle definition. The conversation in the bar [...]

The energy hit me as I arrived. The sun was shining on 2008's European Capital of Culture, the streets were packed and there was live music everywhere. Credit crunch, what credit crunch? It was a Thursday afternoon but shoppers were struggling with bags as champagne corks popped at packed restaurants. This was not the Liverpool I remembered.

Neoclassical architecture gleamed - someone has finally got it. A stretch of grotty [...]

On the day before recess, it's pretty much business as usual at Conservative campaign headquarters, where the talk is that the summer holds no late starts or long, boozy lunches on the Commons terrace. The press team is still putting out stories and there is a rota of MPs organised for rapid response should Gordon put his foot or mouth in it while in Southwold.

The staff were rewarded for [...]

In Westminster there may be a feeling of winding down, but with all the doom-laden talk of a credit crunch, David Cameron is wasting no time, and is busy making speeches to the business community ahead of the summer break. The strategy is to get all this out before the financiers go off, worrying about their bonuses, for their family holidays, and the two leaders go off to embrace Britain. [...]

With Boris's mayoral team having a rough ride, what better time for David Cameron to flee metropolitan London, hit the Glasgow by-election trail and tell a roomful of Scots to lay off the cakes?

There are a few unlikely Tories around now that things are on the up, but the Glasgow East Conservative candidate, Davena Rankin, is almost implausible. Glaswegian-born and bred, she describes herself as "half Scottish, half Caribbean". [...]

Tories are socialising, hanging out together, going to parties and having "away weekends" in Buckinghamshire. Not scared to be snapped with a glass of champagne, they have stopped skulking and are getting imaginative with colour. Last Monday night, a week of balmy summer evenings kicked off with the Conservative Summer Party.

The venue was the Roundhouse, a trendy concert venue in Camden, which is probably about three miles north of [...]