Tory Conference, the good, the bad and IDS

So the conference season is over, in reality none of the parties had a great conference. The liberals played class war with the mansion tax, Labour were, well, Labour and the Tories have had a mixed bag. My breakdown is here.

The good
*William hague promising to ammend the 1972 EU communities act to enshringe in law the right to a referendum for any furth transfer of powers to the EU.
*George Osbourn's brilliant Grim Reaper speech. His pledge to abolish NI for new businesses for two years is hugely welcome. He also rightly stuck to the inheritance tax proposal.
*Boris Johnson's destruction of Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight
*Parts of David Cameron's speech, particularly pointing out the 96% rate of tax for the poorest in society.
*The commitment to doubling the allowances for members of the armed forces.

The bad (or not so good if you prefer)

*Cameron's new obsession with 'community' a concept responsible for many of societies ills.
*The continued obsession with specifcally marraige in the tax system, a complete irrelevance to the real issues.

And then there was one thing I really cannot get excited about. The fact that Iain Duncan Smith, the man the party kicked out from being leader, will be in charge of issues around social breakdown. The religous rigth element of the party will be the Tories greatest threat once in Government in my view, to hand one it's exponents such a huge role is a big mistake.

Overall, The Tories have done enough to justify themselves as an opposition and removing Labour as a worthwhile objective. They have also shown though, the Government of our dreams the will not be either.