Conference Diary, Wednesday - "Evidence based scepticism"

THere is always a sense of "End of Term" about the last day of a Conservative conference: doubly so because for journos and exhibitors it is not just the last day of this conference but that of the whole conference season for the year.

Nevertheless a reasonably happy mood and some intreresting contributions on Defence and Foreign affairs, the "New Politics" and political reform.

One of my Copeland colleagues has coined the phrase "Evidence-Based Scepticism" to describe the public's (largely-justified) concerns about the quality and responsiveness of public services and the extent to which politicans and other public servants of all parties and kinds do - or don't - engage with and respond to them.

Now all eyes are on DC's speech this afternoon.