THIS WEEK AT THE CONFERENCE
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Your support makes all the difference.MAIN ANNOUNCEMENTS
pounds 12m expansion of workfare for 18 to 50-year-old unemployed
Fraud Bill enabling cross-checking of tax returns, VAT returns, and benefit claims
Electronic tagging for young offenders
Power for judges to shame young offenders by naming them
Renewal of manifesto commitment to increase spending on the NHS in real terms every year for the next Parliament
Bill to allow consumers to sue unions for unreasonable damage caused by strikes
pounds 29m extra support for beef farmers and pounds 16.5m to pay for cold storage of beef to help clear BSE culling backlog
pounds 300m per year millennium funds from lottery to go on computer networks after turn of the century
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"Stop the talking - let's get cracking" Lady Thatcher
"If we throw away the next election, we won't just throw away the last five years. We will throw away the last 17" John Major
"I tell this conference - in order to win we need three extra policies: unity, unity and unity" Michael Portillo.
"Let me be frank - if you want Labour in power, just go on behaving the way Labour behaved. That kept them in opposition for 17 years" Michael Heseltine.
GOOD WEEK... ...BAD WEEK DEVIL OF THE WEEK
John Major
A bravura mid-week performance in question-and-answer session, and keynote speech shorn of histrionics
Neil Hamilton
Persona non grata
after collapse of his "sleaze row" libel
action on the first day of the conference
Lord McAlpine
Former Tory Party treasurer, defected to Sir Jimmy Goldsmith's Referendum Party
FASHION STATEMENT
John Major's decision to take his jacket off during a question- and-answer session, prompting Labour to claim that Tony Blair did it first
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Gordon Brown bases his policies on the Dolly Parton school of economics - an unbelievable figure blown out of all proportion (Ken Clarke). Author: Angela Knight, junior Treasury minister
RAPTUREMETER READINGS OF THE WEEK
John Major 92 decibels
(rising to 98 when he attacked Gerry Adams)
Kenneth Clarke 94 decibels
Michael Portillo 90 decibels
(rising to 96 when he called for unity)
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