IMF Approval

The Coalition will feel chuffed with this endorsement from the IMF. It is certainly the case that the IMF is interested in financial outcomes, rather than social ones, so that it may underplay the human consequence of a financil plan. Nevertheless this is good for the Conservatives and their Lib Dem partners and will make life trickier for Labour.

Next week the spotlight falls on the Tory Conference, their first since 1997 in Government. Whatever Ministers say will have more impact that the aspirations expressed this week in Manchester. Much will depend on George Osborne and what he has to say about cuts. The Treasury is in the eye of the coming storm. All else is consequential upon what the Treasury decides. The consequences will even be global, such is the position of the City of London in the financial firmament. For the moment the Chancellor is one of the most powerful men in the world.

Generally the delegates should feel buoyant, but they will not feel as bouyant as when they meet again a year or two down the line, the cuts over, the economy sorted and things once again on the up. They may never get there. But if they do they will have a lot to celebrate. They will need then to be careful, for it is when the economic battle is won and the sacrifices have been made, that the electorate will be in the mood for change and posessed of the confidence to give it a go.