Fraser Nelson

Fresh from his success nationalising the Post Office pension, which artificially knocked £23 billion off the national debt, the Chancellor has come up with another manoeuvre which effectively adds £35bn to the total of QE - and analysts think this just save him from having to tear up his fiscal rule in next month’s mini-Budget. CoffeeHousers may remember that two years ago, Osborne said that the debt-to-GDP ratio would be falling by 2015/16. But the outlook between his first budget and his last one has deteriorated rapidly. But help may be at hand. There is a lot of spare cash from debt interest hanging about in the Asset Purchase Facility: the interest that has accumulated on the gilts bought as part of Quantitative Easing.

The Scottish National Party conference in Perth ought to have been a festival of ideas, showcasing solutions that only be applied by independence. Instead it has reminded everyone that the SNP is bereft of ideas*  - and why the union is not in as much danger as Alex Salmond makes out. Salmond's speech laid into the "Lord Snooties" down south, and the "London government" which would "put this first class nation in the second class carriages." His message - and that of his colleagues - seemed to be that an independent Scotland would have so much money that it'd be first class for everyone. Nicola Sturgeon’s speech suggested that the problem of Scottish poverty is not enough welfare payments.

Andrew Mitchell’s resignation does not leave David Cameron looking weak, as Labour is claiming tonight. The weekend press will have plenty fun with all this. But in the longer run, it's the best option - and for everyone involved. The Prime Minister had an unattractive choice: he could cut his Chief Whip adrift, and give the police unions the scalp they were seeking. Or he keep him around, sitting on the front bench at PMQs and becoming a permanent magnet for any ‘pleb’ jokes that Ed Miliband may want to crack. Cameron is fairly cool-headed about these things: he doesn’t get angry (like Major), or vengeful (like Brown) or pig-headed (like Blair). Instead, the PM tends to carry out a risk assessment - and on a daily basis.

I used to be a barman in a pub in Rosyth, where David Cameron is visiting today, and it’s hardly a hotbed of separatism. Its dockyard is not just a reminder of the many defence jobs the Union brings, but of what happens when the work shrinks and the jobs go. Many of the locals in Cleos were unemployed ex-dockyard workers, and I spent a good chunk of my life hearing them tell me about life and politics. All of them derided the idea of an independent Scotland: they saw it as a quixotic bet that a family man could not afford to place. Mind you, they had a burning hatred for obfuscating politicians who spoke down to them. This was a solidly Labour seat, and had been since Gordon Brown settled down (and even married) a couple of miles away in North Queensferry.

When the unionists were looking for a hero to fight Alex Salmond, no one really thought of grey old Alistair Darling. He was the human fire extinguisher, sent into blazing departments to make them so boring that no smoke - or anything else - ever emerged. But now, he is taking a torch to Salmond's mutating, flaky case for independence. Salmond and David Cameron are expected to sign a deal on Scottish referendum tomorrow, and Darling is itching to get his "yes to the union" campaign started. On the BBC's Sunday Politics, he said he is  looking forward to cutting through Salmond's “bluster and the nonsense.” I always suspected Salmond was angling for a compromise, knowing his independence daydream was not shared by those who would have to live with the consequences.

Britain’s national debt is rising faster than any of the basket-case Eurozone countries that George Osborne is so fond of disparaging but here’s the thing: only 16pc of voters realise that debt is going up. Why? Are they all thick? Or could it be that our political class is systematically misleading them? I’m inclined towards the latter. The odd debt vs deficit slip is forgivable. But ministers do seem to trying to exaggerate – even lie about – what they are doing to the national debt. And I’m afraid that Nick Clegg is my Exhibit A.

The great paradox of British politics is that the left moan about inequality, but it’s the right who will remedy it. Ed Miliband is proposing the restoration of the old order, where the poor get the worst schools and the rich get the best (and the opportunities that flow from it). Labour plans to tax the rich more, and give money to the poor as if by way of compensation. The Tories want to revolutionise the system, so the poor have the same choice of schools that today only the rich can afford. Labour wants to make sure the unemployed are well looked-after. The Tories want to make sure the unemployed are rewarded — not penalised — if they seek work. It may sound perverse.

This was one of David Cameron's optimism speeches, a recession-era variant of his 'let sunshine win the day'. It was pretty short of announcements, which is understandable given the lack of any good news. Instead he focused on essential optimism of the Conservative message: that this is a party which places faith in people, not in governments. And he wanted to spell out what that means, confronting Labour's criticism of his party (and himself) head-on. His speech was full of praise for 'buccaneering' Britain, a nation whose ability to take on the world was reflected in the Olympic medals table. That there is no problem we can't solve, if we can persuade the Queen to parachute out of an aircraft to raise a laugh we can do anything.

The notion of "the mood” of the Tory party conference is harder to judge nowadays, when only one in four people here are actually Tory activists. But those I do speak to are quite upbeat. They shouldn't be, really: the polls are pretty grim, the IMF has today underlined the depressing economic situation. But this has nonetheless feels like a conference fizzing with life. Crucially, this is because of the fringes - not the conference hall. The conversations in the pubs and bars are about events people saw  outside the secure zone. Sure, you might get the odd person talking about Osborne’s speech - which was well-received - or making Boris jokes.