Mr Hague has taken to heart the Tony Blair school of speechifying, which mangles his words into one great riff. Take common, multiply it by 47, take sense, multiply it by 52. But it was a solid riff under which rumbled some fairly far-right ideas. The inevitable ovation from the conference crowd was determined, but not over-affectionate. Despite old ghosts looming large , from John Major's biography, through Michael Heseltine and Ken Clarke's pro-euro pleas, to Lady Thatcher's domination of two days, Tory activists streaming out of Winter Gardens spoke of it being a better, more positive conference than in the past two years.
Party conferences are parochial affairs.
It may not matter that Mr Hague hasn't got all Tory MPs singing from the common sense songsheet. But it does matter that the Tory leader has the vocal support of his party members. An old, odd bunch they may be, but they were behind him at Blackpool.