Having kept an extremely low profile for the conference, Andy Coulson was finally seen with a smile on his face at the News International party on Tuesday night. At home with his old Murdoch comrades, one co-conspirator described him as looking like a lost schoolboy reunited with his family. But how long will the smiles last? Coulson’s inter-governmental nemesis Steve Hilton seems to be winning the No.10 power struggle at the moment, with Cameron’s conference speech rehashing back Hilton’s “Big Society” message. While Coulson was keeping his head down after Peter Oborne’s Dispatches blunt hatchet job, Steve was spotted having a quiet curry with the former Deputy Editor of the Indy Ian Birrell…

Birrell who was called on to sharpen up Cameron’s speeches in the election campaign is of the Hilton blue-sky persuasion and Guido can’t think what he might have been discussing. If Coulson were to be forced out by a smoking gun, a huge power vacuum would be created in government and there is no way Hilton wouldn’t want one of his own to fill it…