BEHIND THE HEADLINES.

The article focuses on the Conservative Party Conference, which is a mass demonstration, not a policy-making body. Its four thousand members meet for only two and a half days, and their Party Leader, in whom sole responsibility for policy and organization is vested by their constitution, does not even appear on the scene until the Conference itself is formally concluded. None the less, the Conference is a useful sounding-board for the militant Conservatives who are the backbone of the party's election machine.