In their own way the Tories are perfectly normal. Consider Mr Norris

In-between returning from being one of the Daily Telegraph’s representatives at the Bournemouth Labour conference, and setting off to be one at the Blackpool Conservative conference, the flu struck me. The doctor said that, among other things, I would have to avoid crowds for the next few days. I thought: that means I can at least go to the Conservative conference.

But apparently not. Even that modest gathering was not safe for me, nor from me. I had to follow the conference on television. Thus the mind went back to the first time I had ever done so. The realisation dawned that it was a Blackpool Conservative conference, and that this year was its 40th anniversary. It was, I suppose, the most famous Conservative conference in the party’s history. On its eve, it was announced from No. 10 that the Prime Minister, Macmillan, had been admitted to hospital ‘for an operation for prostatic obstruction’ — which I remember having to look up in the public library’s medical dictionary.