The Tories are their own unique brand of special

Like Republicans, they're on a journey, but it couldn't be more different

- Jon Sopel

Iam sitting writing this in a corner of the Birmingham ICC, a conference centre and concert venue as though designed by Max Escher with a confusing array of staircases going everywhere and nowhere, it seems. But that is not what strikes me as odd. More, I am struck by this being the weirdest Conservative Party Conference I have ever attended — and the first one I went to was when Margaret Thatcher was still PM, a full nine prime ministers ago. And although it is always tempting to compare the Tories to the Repubican Party — and Labour to the Democrats — they couldn’t be more different.

Let’s just stay for a moment with events here in Birmingham. There is no set piece leader’s speech, because the leader — Rishi Sunak — is standing down, and he doesn’t want to give one. He made a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance, before going on to open a bakery in Sutton Coldfield — oh how the mighty have fallen.

And the mood I expected to find of anguished despair among Conservatives after July’s calamitous kick in the cobblers from British voters is not to be found. Everyone seems to be having the time of their lives. The worst election defeat in the party’s history, and people are partying.

It’s almost as though after 14 years of the wearying and draining responsibility of government there is fun to be had in the easiness of opposition. It’s navel gazing a- go-go. The leadership hopefuls are on an endless round of debates, speeches, media interviews, handshakes and beaming smiles frozen in place — and talking excitedly about how the party HQ needs an overhaul.

But what is there to celebrate? In essence, this conference is about the four people auditioning to take on that most poisoned chalice of political jobs, leader of the Opposition.

Rudderless and leaderless