in Cameron they have a Mr Happy in contrast to Brown's Mr Grumpy. For the past year that contrast has played well for the Tories as Cameron's easy manner has trumped Brown's dour demeanour.

Now, suddenly, Mr Grumpy is the man the public believe can steer the country through the financial chaos. Furthermore, Brown – so the public perception goes - is hardly likely to be a friend of rich bankers. The fact that he is actually - and indeed that his friendship with one of them, the chairman of Lloyds, helped propel the rescue of HBOS last month - is neither here nor there.

As a former marketing man, Cameron used his speech to try to demolish Brown's Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - his experience. "To rebuild our economy, it's not more of the same we need, but change." Cleverly bringing the Iron Lady into play, he argued that if the voters had listened in 1979 to the argument that experience is everything, Britain would never have voted out James Callaghan in favour of Margaret Thatcher.

It was an effective speech but whether

he will see a bounce in the polls in coming weeks is debatable. The fact is, as far as Tory hopes of winning the next election are concerned, there was only one important speech made this conference season and it was Brown's not Cameron's.

Brown's best line - "this is no time for a novice" - was aimed at David Cameron and David Miliband. The Foreign Secretary literally had to grin and bear it: producers of the BBC's live conference coverage get an advance copy of leaders' speeches and so were ready to cut to a close-up of the Foreign Secretary when Brown fired the 'novice' missile.

With it, he virtually demolished the hopes of those in the Labour Party who want a new leader. Which is precisely what Cameron and his team were praying for. They know the financial crisis can't last forever and that the questions over Brown will re-emerge. When that happens, they want Brown with all his weaknesses to be the man they take on at the polls.