- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday October 4 2000 02.57 BST
John Major, who was airbrushed out of last year's proceedings, is this year being airbrushed back in, so his invocation of the party's One Nation traditions came in what newspapers call a coded message: that is to say, he spoke in ways which every politician and journalist could at once see to be chiding, while others could have it explained later. Edward Heath, who gave up coding years ago, was brutal and derisive - though at least he launched his assault from a studio in London, not Bournemouth.
And who, in the midst of this aggro, curbed her tongue, sitting silently through the defence debate in the company of Sir Denis and that epitome of Victorian values, Jim Davidson, acknowledging standing ovations with a gracious wave, not with an outburst? Why, that former conference termagant, Baroness Thatcher! Could it be that she's mellowed? Probably not. More likely, her scorn for both Heath and Major has driven her to conclude that embarrassing one's successors in conference week is not the way that decent people behave.
