Swift heads to Manchester to observe the Conservative Party Conference

Swift has attended many a Conservative Party conference. There are certain reassuring, nay timeless, elements that he most treasures. Groups of loud and spotty young men in blue suits who seem to emerge like unprepossessing butterflies just for this event, and then are never seen for the rest of the year - at least in the circles Swift frequents. Formidable ladies with magnificent bosoms. Men - and it is always men - who defy the rule set out in every fringe meeting that there should be questions, not speeches, from the floor - “Does the panel agree with me” (drones on for several minutes). No you fathead, it does not.

The divine spirit of La Thatcher is always immanent here, but this year more than ever, as it is a century since her birth. The party shop was a shrine to her. There is a film, there are events exploring the lessons of her career, there was a a big party with - gasp - a free drink.

Some say this ancestor worship is unhealthy. Swift does not agree. So many of the challenges she faced have returned. We can learn a great deal from her response.

In the main hall Matthew Syed, a recent convert to Toryism, agreed, indeed suggested in a rather good speech that Baroness T was a parallel to a more recent female Conservative leader. No, not Liz Truss, silly. Badenoch herself. He added that penance was required before voters would trust the party again. Robert Jenrick used the same word, at a very good fringe meeting where his loyalty was conspicuous and seemed unfeigned. Kemi agreed with the contrition line, albeit briefly, in her own oration. Penance from heaven, one might say.

Swift enjoyed her effort. Cicero and Demosthenes can rest easy - she is no rival for their laurels. But there were moments she rose above her pedestrian enumeration of values and policies, to sound passionate and angry by turns, especially on the poison of identity politics. She is a proud to be black, a woman, a Conservative and a Briton.

The Tory party is remarkable in its adherence to merit, regardless of background. Labour is a dinosaur by comparison. Look at the rivals to the bumbling Starmer. Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham and - good grief - Ed Miliband seem to lead the queue now that Rayner is out, at least for a while. It hardly shouts diversity does it?

And the party has begun to answer those critics who bemoaned the lack of policies. Folks, the Tories have gottem. With net zero and leaving ECHR safely banked (and binned), there will apparently be more crunchy stuff to come today on the economy. The party has decided, according to the pithy summary of the trenchant and amusing Tom Harwood - this was at another fringe - that it can’t be number one on immigration (Reform) or health (Labour), but it can go back to its roots and be top dog on the economy. Given the state we are in, not a bad call. The public finances look alarming.

So, penance, but also a bit of vision on offer. At the end of her speech, Kemi told the faithful that although they had a mountain to climb they should do so with a song in their hearts. She makes an unlikely Julie Andrews, but perhaps there is still hope for the future of the world’s oldest political party.