She displayed this again and again, notably when the IRA tried to murder her during the Tory Party Conference in 1984, and nearly succeeded, blowing up her hotel in the middle of the night.

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And when you looked at the audience at the Tory Party conference, it was exactly the sort of people we're talking about - traditionalists - what used to be called the "blue rinse brigade".

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Insofar as people knew him at all, their overriding image was his speech at the age of 16 to the Tory party conference, with his floppy hair and his coy grin at Margaret Thatcher, then Tory leader.

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Similarly Mr Hague realises that the one thing that most Britons know about his teenage years was that he gave a speech to a Tory party conference at the tender age of 16.

ECONOMIST: It were that big

The MP stayed away from the Conservative Party conference in an attempt to defuse the row, but despite the support of backbench Tory MPs it became clear when Parliament returned from recess on Monday that it was not going to go away.

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At the party conference, he appropriated a phrase associated with the 19th century Tory leader, Benjamin Disraeli.

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Her starring role at the conference stems partly from one of the weaknesses of the modern Tory party its lack of women in key posts.

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The Tory leader also said next month's Conservative conference in Blackpool would see the first draft of the party's manifesto for the next General Election.

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