Isabel Hardman

A crime reporter friend enjoys telling the story of his first black eye at the local Magistrates' Court. Like so many, it occurred as he was leaving, and bumped into a convicted defendant. The conversation ran along these lines: Man convicted of awkward crime: You're not putting this in the paper, are you? You can't do this, it'll ruin my business. Reporter, in his first job and in a chippy mood: You should have thought about then when you did it, mate. Man convicted of awkward crime's right fist makes contact with reporter's eye. I remembered this story this evening as the Lib Dems started their party's spring conference in Brighton with a rally for International Women's Day.

Yesterday Ed Miliband reiterated his party's existing policies on immigration for voters, today Yvette Cooper went into further detail about how Labour would address the policy area in government. Like Miliband's PPB, Cooper's speech speech to IPPR included an acknowledgement that politicians don't like to talk about immigration, and a mea culpa. She said Labour should have been quicker to bring in the Australian-style points-based system, that the party should have kept transitional controls for Eastern Europe, and that as a government it should have 'looked more at the impact, and been ready to talk about problems.

It is only towards the tail end of his lengthy New Statesman essay on 'the long economic stagnation of post-crisis Britain' that Vince Cable lets off one of his bombshells. He's clearly freelancing, and not at a bad time, either, given it's his party's Spring Conference this weekend. Although it's possibly not enormously helpful for the Prime Minister, who is giving a major speech on the economy tomorrow. The Business Secretary examines misinterpretations of Keynesianism and the effect of the government's deficit reduction programme on the economy before dropping this: 'Nevertheless, one obvious question is why capital investment cannot now be greatly expanded. Pessimists say that the central government is incapable of mobilising capital investment quickly.

Norman Lamb's announcement today that the government will re-write regulations on competition in the NHS seals up one source of grief for the Lib Dems ahead of their spring conference this weekend. Activists had been threatening an awkward showdown with the leadership on the section 75 regulations, and instead ministers (its notable that Lib Dem Lamb was sent out to bat for the government today rather than a Conservative) can go to their party and argue that they are keeping check on the Conservatives when it comes to the NHS. But this has a flipside, which is that the row over secret courts will gain more momentum now activists' minds are focused.

Liam Byrne launched Labour's campaign on the 'bedroom tax' today, while Helen Goodman, who was the Labour minister responsible for the party's own attempt at cutting the housing benefit bill when in government, raised the cut at Education Questions today. Tory MPs groaned a little. Michael Gove pounded the despatch box, and shouted 'this is not a tax!' and Labour MPs groaned back. But behind the scenes, I understand that far from groaning, Conservative MPs have been lobbying the Prime Minister on this particular cut, which comes into effect on 1 April.

One of the lessons from last week's Eastleigh by-election - and indeed the Italian elections - is that voters don't like politicians at the moment. It's easy for those like Nigel Farage to mop up this anti-politics sentiment in the same way as Nick Clegg could say before the 2010 election 'the more they attack each other, the more they sound the same'. But how does the Conservative party try to appeal to those voters fed up with the Establishment of which it is so clearly a part? David Cameron can hardly start attacking himself, after all. There is one thing that the Tories could do - and which their backbenchers are pushing for - which would at least undermine a sense that the party is tied up in the cosy Establishment.

Don't panic, don't panic! But are the Tories actually panicking about the Eastleigh result? Coffee House readers will have seen Stewart Jackson's call on the government to get more robust on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants, and Gavin Barwell's plea to his colleagues to stay calm. But backbenchers aren't really flapping their arms in terror today, other than taking positions we've already heard them take. Even backbenchers who really don't like David Cameron are clear that even though coming third is 'deeply disappointing', it's not a catalyst for disaster right now. But that doesn't mean Cameron's opponents don't have some sort of vision of how the next few months could pan out.