But deep down the Tories know they’ve got some way to go to be fully prepared.

One party activist told POLITICO a mere 17 campaign managers are in post, despite around 80 being needed for a full-strength election battle. “If we have an election tomorrow we’re f*cked,” they added. (A Tory official said further recruitment would start shortly.)

5) It’s still the Kemi show

“We are under new management. There’s a new captain. There’s a new coach. There’s a new owner, effectively, which is all me,” is how Badenoch put it to GB News.

There’s a reason why she’s taking the “all me” approach. Badenoch easily out-polls her own party, which was unceremoniously dumped out of power by the electorate two years ago. “The party is a drag on Kemi,” as a third shadow cabinet minister put it. 

Badenoch knows she must deflect some of that shine onto her colleagues. That’s why they were introduced, if somewhat awkwardly, in a parade into the hall before her speech — where she name-checked ministers who she said had helped trigger government U-turns.

At the same time, the party still feels a need to apologize for the failures that littered its 14 years in power. O’Brien made that point at one event on the conference fringe, arguing that the Tories failed to build enough prison places, failed to “stop the boats” and failed to deport illegal immigrants sufficiently.

The mission, said O’Brien, is to show “that you are serious, that you are different, and it’s not just another round of bullsh*t ‘hope again’ and fantasy … I feel seared by our experiences in government last time round. After we left, I felt a profound sense of disappointment and frankly shame.”

Badenoch put it best in her speech, where she insisted voters are at least peering through the shop window at the Tories. “They like what they see,” she said, “but let’s be honest: not enough of them are buying yet.”