Tory conference for 2010 is over, so what did we learn?
Well, in terms of their media preparedness, they broke far too many golden rules and had to suffer the consequences.
I'm referring to the announcement on child benefits - leaving aside whether it's a good policy or not - and just focussing on the presentation.

First golden rule broken : be prepared. Most of the Cabinet seemed unaware of the announcement and were caught out. Theresa May on Newsnight refused numerous times to answer the Paxman question as to when she found out about the announcement. Clearly no-one told her much in advance... ditto Ian Duncan Smith whose supposed to be in charge of the welfare system.

Second golden rule broken: don't make it up on the hoof. No-one was on message, as there wasn't a message. Cameron and Osborne seemed to think it had something to do with "fairness". Others thought it was due to "Labour's legacy". The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said it was families who could sort this out by having fewer children, and therefore, I presume, not missing the child benefit!!

Third golden rule broken : no comment is not a good response. A new variation of this was tried by one minister- Tim Loughton, the Children's minister no less. "End of" he kept repeating as in " I have no idea why we are doing this - end of story".

So in one well-worn old Tory slogan: it's back to basics when it comes to handling the media.

PS It's not a good policy. Child benefit is paid to the mother, so how and why should you stop it on the basis that the father might be a top rate tax payer? Isn't there supposed to be separate taxation of husband and wife? It has all the signs of turning into the Tories' 10p tax rate fiasco.