They were caught out in 2017 with too few candidates on the list. Could this sudden urgency be a sign of an election in the offing?
Making Britain better post-Brexit will mean tough decisions about priorities. And that requires the Conservatives to know who their people are.
We have a habit of looking back at policy platforms pursued by previous Conservative Governments, and attempting to bring back popular policies like a poor Hollywood remake.
Over the last couple of years in groups I’ve run, people have become simultaneously more obsessed about the service and more concerned about waste.
It was once said that the secret of Thatcher’s success was moving steadily on multiple fronts so that her enemies did not know where to focus their attention.
That doesn’t mean the Party needs to move right; on the contrary, it means accommodating on issues such as the NHS.
It was May’s best conference speech as Conservative leader. But her One Nation pitch could be too late to save her.
This strangely unreal conference is a kind of passage between the stymied Chequers plan…and whatever happens next.
And: Churchill-mania, Moggmania, and the passion of Rory Stewart. Plus: too many lobbyists.
This week, the Party has a chance to turn Brexit, a trouble-plagued leadership, and directional uncertainly from problems into an opportunity.
It’s also more pronounced than for Leave-Remain. We are about to see a disproportionately Tory cohort succeeded by a disproportionately Labour one.