Tory women were in a restive, not to say moose-hunting, mood. Previously, David Cameron has been treated as a saint by the Conservative Women's Association. But they are unhappy that Gordon Brown is doing so well out of the recession. Dave's halo has slipped. You could smell the frustration amid the perfume.

The warm-up act for Dave was the Sky broadcaster Adam Boulton. Adam ventured that the Tories have been very slow to talk about tax cuts. The crowd murmured. Adam said that there hasn't been a Tory economic policy hit scored for a year. Blue rinses, red rinses and even the odd glamorous blonde head bobbed up and down.

Adam was asked if he thought that the Tory front bench had enough big hitters. He tried to waffle and then mentioned Michael Gove. How they cooed, for they adore him. “And I'm a great admirer of Dominic Grieve,” he announced to cries of “Hear! Hear!” (I had no idea that erudite, beanpole Shadow Home Secretary was such a hit with the ladeez.)

Then he mentioned George Osborne and the room went still. “There is obviously clearly a question about George Osborne,” he said to mutters, “and my advice would be to move him.” The mutters grew. I heard a “Yes!” in front of me, although I couldn't tell if the others were pro or anti. “Not to sack him,” said Adam. “He could be redeployed.”

Oh dear. Now Adam was asked about the media coverage of Sarah Palin. “We chose to treat her as an aberration where, actually, I would say, good or bad, she is sort of an American equivalent of Harriet Harman!” he said to much, much laughter and bally-hoo.

You see what I mean by restive? It was enough to make a moose, and a man, nervous. There was a gushing introduction, but as their leader walked out only seven of the hundreds of women there stood up. It was the world's loneliest standing ovation. Dave set to work. He charmed. He joked about how hopeless men are (always popular here). He hinted at tax cuts. He talked about empathy. He stroked them, gushing like a geyser about how vital women are to politics. When he finished the speech he strode to centre stage and, arms open wide, face as eager as a puppy, said that he had all the time in the world to take questions.

Gabriella, from Braintree, Essex, noted that Gordon Brown's personal rating had gone up. “Apparently because he's done such a fantastic job with the economy,” she said to background giggles.

“A lot of these problems are actually of his making. I personally don't think we are making quite enough of that.”

This got a big clap, indeed a bigger clap than anything Dave had said. But now Dave really started to perform. He called the Prime Minister's economic argument “an absolute tragedy”. Gordon blamed it all on international factors and said that it was nothing to do with him. Dave, now eloquent and angry, said that was no good.

“You are absolutely right!” he cried (always a popular statement). “We have to pin the tail on the donkey. It's a game we all played with our children but we have to pin the tail on this particular donkey and that would be our Prime Minister.”

A donkey without a tail is not nearly as good as a pitbull with lipstick, but still they laughed, and it was only now that Dave seemed to relax. They loved him again. He left to a real standing ovation. Still, I bet he's glad he's not a moose.

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