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What Sam said afterwards

David Cameron has just finished his speeech, to a enthusiastic reception in the hall.

Afterwards, Mr Cameron could be heard asking his shadow cabinet if he had done all right as the crowd burst into an ovation at the end, according to the Press Association.

“Was that all right?” his microphone picked up. Shadow ministers could be heard saying “brilliant”, "unbelievable” and “very good”.   

He asked his wife, Samantha, the same, adding: “I love you babe”. Moments later, he said: “Ahh, I’m knackered."

Pleasure Palace

Tuesday afternoon, and to the Pleasure Beach. A remarkable number of members of the media decided to do the same, not least Guy Black, the Telegraph spinner in chief. No politicians yet, though...

New Tories, old priorities.

The touchy-feely veneer of the Tory party is wearing thin. The hall is virtually empty for the international development debate going on now

Ming stays home

Another sign of election fever - Ming Campbell was planning to go to the US this week. But he has abandoned his plans, preferring to stay in the UK. "He is very much in Blighty while Brown dithers" says a spokesman.

Labour relishing hack exhaustion

It can only be a matter of days before we find out whether there will be a November election. But one things is sure: the Labour party is relishing the fact that the campaign will come straight after three weeks of party conferences, and the exhausted press corps will be in no mood for charging round the country. "It will mean you will write what we say", one Labour official said, smirking.

Osborne's promise

Every good speech at Tory conferences for last decade have been jokingly seen as a leadership bid. Today's performance by George Osborne certainly qualified after it spectacularly won him the affections of delegates.The loudest cheer of the conference so far went up when he delivered the line: "The next Conservative Government will raise the Inheritance Tax threshold to £1 million."

Strangling the modernisers

Another sign the new Conservatives are dead. A spy tells me he has just seen Francis Maude - until July party chair and the uber moderniser's uber moderniser - wearing a tie

A plea for attention?

Theresa May appeared on stage after William Hague's speech wearing these boots with a leopard picture on the side, presumably angling once again to secure newspaper coverage through her footwear.

The Tory press office say she will not actually be needing them until Tuesday, when she takes part in the Tories' gardening project. A desperate move?

Temper temper

In private, some Tories will refer to David Cameron's tendency to, in the words of one person who has worked with him, "lose it". There was a brief display of his anger this morning when he was confronted with the Daily Mirror's Tory tormentor in chief, Kevin Maguire during BBC One's Sunday AM.

According to Maguire, Cameron was horrified to find it would have to share a sofa with the Mirror hack, who greeted him "Comrade Cameron". He apparently insisted a BBC flunky find a separate chair and exiled Maguire off the sofa.

Tory party power failure

It fell to William Hague to rescue a rather calamitous opening of the Tory conference by reaching for the activists' absent heroine. "You [Gordon] may fawn now at the feet of our greatest Prime Minister, but you are no Margaret Thatcher," he cried, to at least 15 seconds applause (significantly longer than his cry for a European referendum, it must be said). How they miss her.

The audience desperately needed something to cheer about. The ghost of the Winter Gardens was in mischievous mood earlier, when the speaker system failed them, creating an echo and causing uproar on the right flank of the auditorium.

This came just moments after (the appropriately named) Simon Mort, the conference chairman, had stunned the room after he declared his job was "like losing your virginity" because you only do it once and you had to get it right. He tried to tell conference that the Tories had had a "fantastic year" but the audience shouted him down to say they couldn't hear.

The conference was duly suspended for 20 minutes, with the activists fuming in their seats while a sound check was performed. Stewards went round telling the grumpy crowd to smile and look cheery, according on one unverified report. Labour have already issued a somewhat ludicrous press release. The Tory press office blamed a power failure, perhaps not a wise idea in the current political climate.

Part of the answer lies in the way the Tories have reconfigured the auditorium of the Winter Gardens, building a set which makes the room around a third smaller, installing tiered seating and obscuring any of the its faded Victorian splendour.The other reason was more prosaic but equally unfixable: the speaker system for the sign language providers, which works slightly ahead of the speakers in the main hall, was turned up too loud.

Tories adopt Kinnock election slogan

On March 12, 1992, Neil Kinnock unveiled his new election slogan: "It's time for change." It featured on the backdrop of the first press conference at the start of the election campaign, and was intended to suggest that after three successive victories by the ruling party, the opposition should be given a chance. The rest is history.

And this morning? George Osborne reveals in an interview the Tory election slogan: "It's time for change." Of course we wouldn't dream of accusing them of "borrowing" the phrase...

Blackpool rocky

With 24 hours before the faithful gather in Blackpool for the Tory conference, there are many unknowns - not least that there may not be a proper conference at all

As I speak Downing Street is a hive of activity. At the very least, expect plenty of distractions from Number 10 while the political classes are in Blackpool.

Following the 11 point lead in Saturday's Times / Populus poll, things look grim for the Tory party and David Cameron has a huge struggle to turn things around.  But what exactly?

Here are five yardsticks by which to judge the Conservative Party conference.

1. Do they manage to put forward a convincing set of policies, after an agonising 18 months of policy indecisiveness and reconciling the work of the policy groups

2. How do they walk to tightrope of environmental concerns and lower taxes

3. Are the 'noises off' voiced in public confined to the margins or do they dominate the conference.

4. Do shadow cabinet ministers spend the whole week complaining in private to journalists. This will influence the tone of the coverage

5. Does David Cameron appear more authentic. According to YouGov, 55% think Cameron is "lightweight" compared to Gordon Brown.