At most of their annual conferences over the past decade, senior Conservatives have had to feign jollity in the face of dismal electoral prospects. So they must have been discombobulated by instructions to do just the opposite at this year's gathering, which took place in Birmingham from September 28th. Despite their comfortable lead in the polls, they pulled it off. Champagne receptions and celebratory speeches were ditched to avoid seeming smug at a time of economic crisis. The Tory leader, David Cameron, even gave his set-piece speech on October 1st from a lectern, calculating that his usual gambit of roaming the stage without notes would be inappropriately showy.
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