*The conference hall backdrop behind all the speakers is a huge Union flag but, unfortunately, when the TV close-up appears the national emblem transforms into the French tricolour. Penny for Francois Hollande’s thoughts.
*Spotted in the conference bookshop: David Cameron’s biography placed in between one of Winston Churchill and another of...Joseph Goebbels.
*A nerve was touched. Following England’s untimely departure as hosts from the rugby world cup, the PM was asked was there a “curse of Cameron”.
“That annoys me so much; that's nonsense,” declared a miffed premier.
“Who was Prime Minister this summer when we won the Ashes, thank you very much? I was Prime Minister when we had the best ever haul of Olympic medals. I always support England and we don't always win. Shock, horror, surprise.
"I shouldn't let these things annoy me but I was there on the great night when Mo Farah won gold twice. I've witnessed some great sporting triumphs. There is no curse!” So there.
*Joke of the day came from Boris Johnson. No surprise. The grand quipper referred to our “crusty friends”, the anti-austerity protesters, and how delegates had to “go through a kind of Khyber Pass with protestors on either side hurling eggs and water bombs”.
But the mop-haired London Mayor emerged unscathed and concluded more needed to be done to encourage sport in schools “Because they managed to miss their target with every projectile.”
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