After announcing over the summer he was abandoning the Foreign Secretaryship and the Commons at the 2015 General Election to, in truth, get a life, the gathering in Birmingham was always going to be William's swansong.

And just to underline the importance of the event to the Conservative congregation, up popped George Osborne to lead the long farewell to his good chum William. Indeed, it is not often mentioned at party conferences but the teary-eyed Chancellor used the l-word; "love".

You know it's a big moment when the speaker's appearance is announced by a video of his best bits. Which, in this case, included the 1977 conference when the teenage tyke famously got the delegates laughing as his "some of you won't be here in 30 or 40 years' time" speech.

Then, from stage right, appeared the Leader of the Commons, walking with his characteristic ramrod back and buzzcut hair, to tumultuous applause, even louder and longer than Ruth Davidson's ovation moments earlier.

There was a mutual nod of respect for his good chum George when he noted how in 1977 the Chancellor was only six years old. "And I know this," he told conference, "even a six-year-old George Osborne would have more economic sense than a 47-year-old Ed Balls."

There was the usual list of achievements, which the big H rolled off with aplomb, and, of course, the mandatory reference to the Iron Lady. "All that time ago," recalled the Commons Leader, "I urged Margaret Thatcher on; to be truly ­radical. Looking back on it now, I suspect she was going to be truly radical anyway." The blue-rinsed chuckled away merrily.

But the biggest response came, as always, when a big Conservative beast pokes fun at those Labour pygmies.

Noting how he had spent 26 years at Westminster, he stressed how he had never seen a Labour frontbench "worse, weaker or more woeful than theirs today".

Mr H generously referred to the commanding presence of John Smith, the eloquence (sic) of Neil Kinnock and the "infuriating but effective smoothness" of Tony Blair. "Now," he complained, "there isn't even John Prescott to make their ­weakness entertaining."

As the former Tory leader pledged himself to continue the Tory fight from beyond the Gothic palace by the Thames, the audience rose and erupted in applause.

The great parliamentarian lingered, scanned the audience and soaked in the wave of affection; no doubt thinking for all the grind of government and party politics, he was going to miss this.