Eddie Barnes - Tories claim the moral high ground

A few initial thoughts having just left the conference hall in Manchester.

1. The most significant moment was Cameron's riposte to Labour on poverty. "Don't you are lecture us about poverty," he said. "You have failed us and it falls to us, the modern Conservative party, to fight for the poorest who you have let down." A great cheer and standing ovation followed. After decades of ceding the moral high ground to Labour and being cast as the nasty party, Cameron is trying to claim it back. The hall loved it - two decades of feeling like social pariahs is fast disappearing.

2. Shadow Ministers can rest easy.....Cameron effectively used the speech to confirm that they are going to get the jobs they currently occupy, which must have come as a particular relief to people like Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Teresa May.

3. Iain Duncan Smith looks like he's going to get some new kind of job as the Minister for Social Justice, although the party has confirmed following the speech that there won't be a new post created. No doubt he will soon be renamed the Minister for Easterhouse - the place where the former leader's conversion to poverty issues first began.

4. Can we leave Bono alone now? Or is he going to pop up at the SNP conference next week to say how great they are as well? Having now appeared on a giant screen at both Labour and Tory conferences, it now seems no party feels complete with a commendation. This needs to stop. Tories, the detoxification thing....we get it.

5. The recession didn't get much of a show. Cameron gave it a distinctly cursory mention at the beginning of the speech before moving onto his favourite topics of social responsibility and poverty. Look out for negative reaction from the City about the Tories still not getting the financial crisis.