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Conservative conference - Clouds gathering for Brown?
Andrew Alexander
Are things looking darker for Gordon Brown? The weather in Blackpool has remained stubbornly warm, and the Tories are upbeat after a series of combative speeches from some of the party's big guns.
The surprise comments by former PM Sir John Major on the prime minister's Iraq announcement had reporters glued to TV screens, and are bound to be a big subject of discussion until the conference winds up on Wednesday afternoon.
Sir John, who does statesman very well, may have made Brown look cheap. His intervention was done without speaking to central office, Cameron's aides say, which means Sir John was angry and meant it.
Fraser Nelson at the Coffee House said this was the worst mistake of Brown's time at Number 10 so far, while Nick Robinson pointed out that Brown has now categorically broken his promise to make major announcements to Parliament first.
Tuesday morning's papers were filled with the buzz around shadow chancellor George Osborne's surprise pledge to raise the threshold on inheritance tax to £1m.
The Tory press office had produced a door-stop thick file of press cuttings, and the whole thing seemed skillfully handled. With the media given advance warning of Monday's education plans, it left the stage clear for the tax pledge to make a big splash.
It did, and Quentin Letts thinks Osborne was surprised by the strength of the response to his speech.
Whether the policy has been properly costed has turned into something of an internet firestorm. Iain Dale, who was promoting his new book at the Politicos stand this afternoon, thinks Labour are "flailing about all over the place".
The Mail's Ben Brogan was among bloggers pointing out that Labour shouldn't be using the Treasury to rebut the Tory plans.
Tuesday began with William Hague, who delivered a typically polished performance and promised that a Tory government would legislate to make all EU treaties subject to a referendum.
This is music to activists' ears and Hague can do it in his sleep, but the speech fizzed menacingly without ever quite catching fire.
Next up was a debate on globalisation and global poverty, with a staggering speech from Zoya Phan, a refugee from Burma who dragged a pair of iron shackled used by the military government onto the stage.
It was the most powerful moment of the conference so far, and left much of the hall in tears. Shadow international development secretary Andrew Mitchell talked to ePolitix.com about Phan's speech.
After lunch, party members were treated to everyone's favourite action hero, David Davis. Billed as the man who makes home secretaries quake, he spoke on law and order, immigration and the fight against terrorism.
It sagged a bit towards the end and the videos he introduced were hard to follow, but his common sense touch when talking about health and safety gone mad is faultless, and he had a great story about a little old lady shooting a burglar. Full speech here.
The rest of the afternoon included a barn-stormer from the ever popular Ken Clarke, but the most remarkable performance of the day had to come from Iain Duncan Smith. The party now loves the ex-leader they dumped, and they treated him to a standing ovation.
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Published: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 18:08:50 GMT+01
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