23 OCTOBER 1971, Page 11

TORY NOTE BOOK

n some respects the Prime Minister has never looked better than at the Tory conference this year. At one and the same time he seemed remote from the minor troubles and discontents of the delegates assembled at Brighton, and intensely good humoured and confident about everything. Indeed, I have never seen him in such consistent, wisecracking good humour. Alas the gaiety did not flow over into his Saturday speech, though there were a few nicely timed and rather subtle jokes. The detailed and rather stilted formalism of his survey of the Government's activities can Probably be put down to the two bright Young men who travelled from Whitehall tO help Mr Heath and Mr Michael Wolfe with the speech. But the fact remained that the Prime Minister still seems uninterested In making an effort to rouse the evereager party faithful on these occasions. This might be due to the almost excessive Confidence in himself and his policies that Marked the first third of his speech; or to his long-standing — if unfair — conviction that the Tory party don't cheer him enough anyway; or to that curious lack of stamina he invariably shows at the final Conference rally, and which is marked by Occasional cracks in the voice, and a distinct tiredness in the delivery.

Mr Heath's federal opacities

Minister of this is to suggest that the Prime minister was uninterested in what was going on at the conference. He had, for °ne thing, to keep a careful eye on the inbe lobbying for the European cause eing carried out by some of his ministers, !1.,,nd. notably by the indefatigable Chief ,vv,h1P, Mr Francis Pym. Mr Heath dipped IS toe far enough into this treacherous Water to deliver opaque hints about the nature of his own European commitment suggesting that he was not in actual .tact as federalist-minded as he sometimes !Ooked, and drawing attention to some of IS more fervently nationalist actions and Pronouncements in the last sixteen Months.

PYm's revivals The excellent — and sometimes ruthlessanagement of Conservative conferences legendary, and was never more in evidence that at Brighton. Despite the establishment's ebullience after the EEC vote, the more concerned members of the Cabinet went on socializing for all they l‘'ere worth on Thursday and Friday. Mr Yni — who is developing into a Chief

Whip as shrewd, observant, amiable and popular as his by now almost legendary predecessor Mr Whitelaw — had excessively late nights from Tuesday on, during which he was from time to time revived less by spirits than by cold water and clean shirts.

Sir Alec bats on

The European party on Friday evening was the main occasion for displays of Cabinet involvement in the Market cause. Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Carrington, Mr Prior and — again — Mr Pym were all there from early on, dispensing good cheer and confidence to a curiously mixed bag which, while it certainly contained a large band of zealots, managed also to find room for a number of the unfaithful (or enemies, as Mr Heath jokingly calls us) to drink the excellent champagne so generously laid on. The occasion also served to disperse, on high authority, two foolish current rumours. The first was that the pro-Market vote could in some mysterious sense be regarded as the "full-hearted consent" of the people, which Mr Heath regarded as necessary before entry could take place: it was useful to have the ambiguity on this subject in both Sir Alec's and Mr Heath's speeches dispelled. The other rumour destroyed was that of Sir Alec's early retirement. He has never looked fitter nor been more involved and his advisers were anxious to remind one of a delicately phrased question on the subject from a Brussels bureaucrat recently to which the Foreign Secretary replied, with amiable courtesy, "Oh, there's a great deal of good batting ahead."

Sir Douglas fights on

The palm for stamina must, however, surely go to Sir Douglas Glover, Honorary Vice-President of the National Union, who also had a succession of late nights, in which he sought out for lively debate some exceptionally raucous Irish Republican elements. Sir Douglas, one has to remember, is not only a good deal older than such striplings as Mr Pym, but the veteran of a number of serious operations as well. His activity served to remind one that, while governments may come and go, the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations goes on for ever. Its higher-ups were a good deal less bland about European prospects than were ministers; and are also deeply concerned both about the Government's continued failure to present a sufficiently human face to the electorate and about the lack of flexibility and openness to new ideas in the party organisation. One can safely look to Dame Peggy Shepherd, next year's conference chairman, to instil a good deal of necesf ary vigour and activity into the set-up during the next twelve months, and to make sure that ministers listen to her as well.

Mini-revolt

None of which is to suggest that the National Union will be greatly disturbed by the mini-revolt of the Tory youngsters — and the not so young, like Mr Jerry Wade — which erupted, as it does every year, as soon as it was too late to do anything about their grievances. As ever, of course, the grievances were paltry — not enough YC speakers, not enough debating subjects of intimate concern to tiresome youth. One exasperated mediator told me how much she wished the young would grasp the fact that their elders were not only more intelligent than themselves, but more concerned with and involved in wider issues as well. She did, however, put forward the suggestion, which I hope will be attended to, that youth should have a debate of its own at next year's conference, just to see what subject they would choose, and how many delegates would stay in the hall to listen to them. What odds that the subject chosen will be youth itself?

John Peyton's descant

I could scarcely have believed it possible that I would sit attentive throughout a ministerial speech on transport until I heard Mr Peyton descant on the subject. The young might usefully reflect on the fact that this was an old-style, Monday Club Tory bringing both intellectual order and humanity into a highly technical and potentially boring debate. From a conference point of view it was a pity Mr Peyton was unable to spread his wings over, and lavish his salty wit on, a more general political topic. The same point, with regard both to the House and the country generally, has, I was told, occurred to many others. And so, after a conference in which rumours of sackings were rife, one could usefully list the ministers present who looked ripe for promotion. After Mr Peyton, one felt that a little judicious money could be laid out on Mr Carlisle at got to go round compensating the Home Office, Mr Paul Dean at the how on earth are we going to DHSS, and Mr Amery at the Environment