Tory party conference - Shirley Tart's view

Funny really. Since it was at a racecourse, and the one where the famous Gold Cup is won and lost, there might have been plenty of quips about being odds-on to win, writes Shirley Tart.

But yesterday the Conservative Party Spring conference was sharing Cheltenham racecourse with a massive Sunday car boot sale.

The two groups mingled amicably enough. Though while one lot were leaving with triumphant bargains, the others were gearing up for Call Me Dave to lead them to the Promised Land.

Some killed time by drifting into fringe meetings, stocking up on the refreshments and wandering out again. See, there is such a thing as a free lunch. The chairman at this particular meeting apologised that food had gone so quickly. He wasn't sure why. I am. I know why Sir - but I'm no form snitch.

And so we came to the Routemap to Recovery. This will be undertaken by the next Conservative government when - nobody says if any more - the party wins the next election.

The debate was opened by earnest Tory head girl Theresa May and wound up by shadow chancellor George Osborne, who no longer looks about 12 and talks like a talented teenager.

He has grown, matured and developed an air of deep gravitas. He who would be Mr Tory Moneybags is now believable. The faithful hooted approval as he roared: "This budget was fiction built on fantasy. It's Alistair in Wonderland, a Mad Hatter Prime Minister and a Tea Party cabinet. New Labour born in 1994, died April 22, 2009. We have heard the last notes of the Requiem Mass."

(An aside here, but were the panel's strange white armchairs the same ones used at the last party conference in Birmingham? If so, who keeps them between big meetings?)

MEP Daniel Hannan, who was a big hit recently with a scathing attack on Gordon Brown, got a perhaps predictable standing ovation with a rousing call for a referendum on the European Unity treaty. He is a good speaker.

Talking of which, each time I see and hear William Hague, I am really sad that the Tories used him too soon. As of now, what a fine leader he would make.

Authoritative, mature, beautiful voice (well, delivery is important), dispatch box seasoned, no longer needs to wear a baseball hat for effect and on top of that, funny when appropriate.

And so it was this weekend. Another touch of regret that Will had his day when he was a lad rather than a man of substance, but at least he's still up front supporting the rest of them.

Earlier a delegate in the ladies' loo was shouting loudly to a friend beyond the door "they have all these ideas but nobody's telling us about them".

Well, if she was in the hall for the leader's big speech, he told her about a few. Not in detail of course, they never do before the vote is signed and sealed.But David Cameron spoke pretty powerfully about the age of irresponsibility giving way to an age of austerity; about the next government being one of thrift and not of waste; about facing up to Labour's multi-billion pound borrowing which it has condemned our children and their children's children to pay off.

He citicised spendaholics who dished out £2.3billion on refurbishment of the Ministry of Defence and £90,000 on plants for the Department of Transport.

Sounds outrageous, is outrageous, and, with a growing authority, the Tory leader says it has to stop. What will really count, of course, will be actions and example when he and his men (and women) take power.

For yesterday, his followers felt they were getting a better bargain than anything the car boot sale could offer!