Tub-thumper Eric Pickles was hissed at by a room of drunk Tories on Saturday night when he claimed that the Coalition have achieved more in the last four years than Margaret Thatcher achieved in her first term:

“I say this in modesty, but I think we have probably achieved more in the first term, that the blessed Margaret did in hers… [Interruption, boos.] That’s what I like, blind obedience. It’s that second term when the big reforms came in. It’s her second term that made that really big difference.”

While the boozed up activists at the Crowne Plaza in Nottingham did not like it, the thinking is not unheard of in Tory circles – especially around No.11.