The youthful leader of Britain’s Conservatives grew hoarse in the repetition: his party is changing. Really. By the close of the Tories’ Bournemouth conference he sounded like he meant it. Even the hard-bitten cynics of the media were conceding that David Cameron might actually be telling the truth.

Mr Cameron’s closing conference speech was well-judged. By making its centrepiece a personal commitment to National Health Service, he reinforced once again the message of change. The Tories have spent the past several decades speaking as if the health service was a socialist imposition they were obliged to tolerate. Mr Cameron called the NHS a vital symbol of “collective will and social solidarity”. And his audience cheered.