A new dining club unites the Tory MPs closest to their leader. They are young, unscarred by the past, and very ambitious.

Conservative spring conference is one of those things that happens though no one really knows why. MPs who aren't making speeches try to weasel out of it, especially if it's good golfing weather. Big announcements are rare, and five hours on an unsavoury train with no promise of fun at the end is a drag for anyone.

Tory MPs are quite upbeat and jolly about this year's, though. There will be a full-on après-Budget attack, but the main theme of the weekend will be the family, parents and children. Along with other MPs, David Cameron will take part in a social action project on a local community farm. A press officer says it will not be just a photo opportunity: "David and the others will be building something so they leave more of a legacy." Quite what sort of "legacy" you leave behind on a farm after an hour is anyone's guess, but that's something to look forward to.

Thankfully, this year's event has been reduced to just one night. Perhaps the party might consider shortening the main conference in October? That would be modern.

Just in time, news of the Green Chip group has emerged - a dining club of 30 Conservative MPs who have proved their ultimate loyalty to Cameron. Although there has been talk of their regular, small get-togethers segregating a party within the party, members are quick to deny it. They do this by saying how very informal it is. "What's interesting is who they have and who they haven't picked," says a member. The group, predominantly young men, is chiefly of the 2005 intake: for instance, Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, Ed Vaizey, shadow arts minister, and the shadow Treasury minister Justine Greening. Most of them backed Cameron early in the 2005 leadership campaign. Many Johnny-come-lately Cameroons are not included.

According to one diner, the shadow environment minister Greg Barker "did the chasing. No one was really sure what it was about to begin with. I was reluctant at first because I thought it was another bloody 'green' initiative, but he sold it as a 2005 version of the Blue Chip group."

Another member, strangely, uses the same preamble - "Greg did the chasing" - adding: "It was a soft sell, almost like an extension to the Cameron leadership campaign." Green Chip dinners are usually held in the club room of 1 Parliament Street, and dates are already in the diary for the next four months.

There is certainly a closeness among the 2005 intake, many of whom gave their pound of flesh fighting unwinnable seats in 2001. They obviously want to be in power. They are young, but unprepared to waste their thirties and forties in opposition - unlike some of the 1997 and 2001 intake. They are a different breed of MP.

Many of the Green Chippers are not so steeped in politics that their CVs begin with working in Conservative Campaign Headquarters or researching in the House of Commons, as was often the case with an earlier generation of MPs. They did something else first, in a variety of different careers. They also might not have chosen the job for life. Says one shadow minister: "I probably won't be an MP at 60. People have two, three, four careers these days." The days of the bedblockers are over.

A former Tory cabinet minister notices a difference in the young 2005 brigade. "They are not scarred by defeat. They can't tell you every Maastricht vote or quote entire speeches, and that's good. In 1979 some of the people around Thatcher knew too much history. They'd gone through the decline of Macmillan and Heath. They didn't or couldn't relax into victory.

"Blair is a good example," he continues. "He wasn't scarred either. This lot will not be prisoners of their party's history.

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