Although Cameron and the Chancellor expected the deficit to be far smaller by now, they still have a credible strategy for dealing with it.
A more grassroots-friendly forward momentum, significant achievements in office and under-estimating Ed Miliband’s ambition could all explain the party mood.
The post-war duopoly of highly centralised parties was an historical aberration. Parties should draw lessons from a longer view of British political history.
Mark Reckless, the UKIP candidate in Rochester, is nothing like as popular as Douglas Carswell is in Clacton.
The first report from our selection of fringe events at Conservative Party Conference.
What keeps us coming back is friendship and loyalty. Now let’s press on to next year’s election.
Demagogic attacks by UKIP and the SNP on the Conservatives and Labour are inspired by an unacknowledged and unrealistic egalitarianism.
The choice between the paths represented by Cambridge and Clacton doesn’t exist
Surely it would surpass the narrow defeat suggested by today’s YouGov poll. But it wouldn’t be without problems for Unionist politicians.
Only the points of order raised against John Bercow by three Tory MPs struck a partisan note.
The Conservatives are the only party committed to abolishing the “15 year” rule which prevents expats from voting in the UK. That’s something to celebrate.
ConservativeHome’s Executive Editor took on the Times columnist on the Daily Politics earlier: “I think this is a fundamental misreading of Douglas Carswell.”
More than half of those who voted Conservative in 2010 now intend to vote UKIP – but will they stick with that choice in 2015?
“I agree with a huge amount of things the Conservative Party stands for. And its activists and most of its MPs believe in the things I believe in.”
Also: voters are more optimistic about their own economic prospects than the country’s.