The effect of the train strikes on attendance, the trauma of recent years, and the change in the nature of the Tory Conference itself leave the question hanging.
Labour is confident in Swindon. But what of its traditional territory such as Stoke and Hull?
Most Tory MPs will be seeing large increases in the housing targets for their seats, while many Labour MPs see their local targets reduced.
It was a failed county. An abomination of the 1972 Local Government Act. Yet bureaucrats keep trying to revive it by stealth.
We will fight on a positive city-wide agenda: respecting and empowering the individual, strengthening all communities, investing evenly across the City.
Bowman and Westlake’s policy ideas are perfectly compatible with this end, but pitching them as a city and town agenda risks creating a false impression.
“Taking back control” must also allow pioneering solutions to be tried out in local communities. Democracy is a process, not an event.
It would be a mistake for the Conservatives to even try to recruit him. Instead, they should follow his lead of thinking – and saying – the unsayable.
But more money and powers need to be given directly to the North to drive further progress.
The EU’s petulant announcement that the UK is no longer eligible to compete for European Capital of Culture makes the national award all the more important.
We are waiting for Labour to deliver their proposals. Because this should be too important an issue to become a political football.
We should be increasing our export ambitions and the support that government gives companies in entering these global markets.