If party conferences are a barometer of how a political party is feeling about itself, then the last fortnight in Manchester and Liverpool has been instructive. 

As you might expect for a government performing poorly in the polls, overseeing a country in almost perma-crisis; fighting on multiple fronts against inflation, global tumult and ongoing internal division, the Conservative’s annual shindig was characterised by a sense of existential despondency. In the face of such doom and gloom it was perhaps unsurprising that the main stage was light on meaningful policy announcements