"Despite Herculean efforts, he has not been seen to deliver," is the verdict of one MP.Peter Lilley wins marks for his handling of the DSS, but "doesn't catch the imagination". But they do not have votes, and though the parliamentary party - which has - will be more right-wing after the election, his ambitions do not score where it matters. He is one of the few Cabinet ministers who can make ordinary people laugh.Like Portillo, the Home Secretary Michael Howard has been stumping the constituencies for months, winning standing ovations from audiences sometimes amounting to hundreds. "I hope's he's learned something," mutters a confirmed Europhobe "But actually I think he's sunk. Partly because of his performance at Blackpool last year, and partly because he wasn't prepared to stand up and be counted [in the leadership election against John Major] - when Redwood was."Ian Lang, the President of the Board of Trade, is singled out as a good "dark horse" bet in the leadership stakes, should he retain his marginal Galloway seat. A middle-ranking figure on the right conceded: "Ken is what we need in terms of style: a thug, basically, with bluster and barnstorming skills.

But we can't go in the political direction he would take us." The emphasis is not on policies The talk is of who, not what. Defence Secretary Michael Portillo will seek to restore his image, dented severely by his jingoistic performance last year. None rate Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine's chances any more ("the lion is getting mangy" is a typical view) and few are willing to punt on Kenneth Clarke. His politics seem to trundle down the middle, yet he is acceptable to the right, too."Younger MPs concur, but speak of him as a leader-after-next, rather than a successor.

He is regarded as having done a much better job in the principality than his predecessor, John Redwood. "Hague is the guy who must set out his stall," said an old warhorse in the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs "At present, he is everybody's favourite. In private, they talk of little else.A discreet sample of back-bench opinion has come up with some very interesting conclusions. First, and by almost universal consent, watch out for William Hague, the Welsh Secretary and youngest member of the Cabinet, who will appear tomorrow morning to talk about keeping the Kingdom United. How does Michael Howard outflank Jack Straw on the Right? Can Kenneth Clarke be more of an Iron Chancellor than Gordon Brown says he will be?The answer is that they must, because the real, unpublished agenda at Bournemouth is: who will succeed John Major? Officially, MPs and constituency "representatives" (they hate to be called delegates) are sworn to a mafia- style omerta. The conference agenda, already published, promises a succession of ministers strutting their stuff and showing how much more tough they are, or caring, or whatever they have to be to look more competent than their Labour shadows It will not be easy.

The received wisdom on the back-benches is that if John Major falls off his soap-box and loses, he will be gone within a week. "Why should he hang around and take all the flak?" asked one Major loyalist. (The actual words used were rather more earthy.) "He'll go off to make some money from his memoirs." The next six days, therefore, will be critical for the would-be premiers jostling for pole position. The election for the leadership of the Conservative Party that, on present trends, will immediately follow the other one. As They gather in blustery Bournemouth, the Tory faithful are understandably obsessed about the election No, no, not the general election. Mr Ivieson's advice: turn it into a bookcase; cut it in two and make a bedside table and a tea-table; or best of all, leave it as it is.After the serial, Under the Red Robe, Mr Ivieson announced the programme was being listened to by a panel representing a cross-section of women's interests: Miss Margaret Bendfield, former minister of labour, Miss Deborah Kerr, the film star, and Mrs Elsie May Crump, "wife of a butcher from Chorlton-cum-Hardy" They would be giving their verdict the next day The Inkspots sang "Whispering Grass" And an institution was born.. "Of course one can't wear one's best clothes for scrubbing the floor...