The demise of the Tory party has been greatly exaggerated

Something happened at the Conservative party conference today which suggested it is too soon to write off the democratic world’s most successful party: there were three brilliant speeches in a row. Given that this political era is not known for its great orators, this was a most unusual and very welcome occurrence.

Of the four Conservative leadership contenders, only Tom Tugendhat – perhaps hampered by being first on and having to warm-up the audience – failed to truly connect beyond his enthusiastic gaggle of camp followers. His workmanlike address was perfectly competent but lacked a transcendent moment.

James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch all gave orations which reached that elevated level of fluency that professional sportspeople sometimes refer to as ‘being in the zone’: the moment when everything comes together.

Despite inspiring an audience of thousands in Birmingham, the more prosaic reality is that the trio were in fact pitching to a key group of 38 Tory MPs: the 16 who voted for Mel Stride in the last round plus Tugendhat’s 22.