Five things we learned from the Tory party conference

1 The British Conservative Party remains utterly polarised over Brexit. Attempts over four days to introduce other topics failed. That included attacking its old foe, Labour. It ended, as it started, in major name-calling division.

2 Former foreign minister Boris Johnson is pitching for Theresa May’s top job. The party membership loves him and would elect him. Big doubts still linger over whether he can get enough MPs’ backing to put him on the ballot paper.

3 It was a bruising week for Mrs May. But she persisted and even resorted to the questionable tactic of attempting to dance on stage for her keynote speech. There were mutterings about a leadership heave, leading one pro-Johnson MP to throw down an open challenge. Others believe she will survive until 2019 and whatever conclusion this Brexit farrago winds up with.

4 DUP leader Arlene Foster made her presence well-known with three very robust media forays. She has made it clear that any Irish Border deal will have to meet the DUP approval. This throws up yet another obstacle to Mrs May managing to broker and win approval for a reasonable Brexit deal. It was also clear that British Labour poses a real threat to Mrs May and the Conservatives. But an early UK election would further complicate things.

5 Once you discount political conference rhetorical flourishes, it was still clear that Mrs May and the EU want to do a Brexit deal inside the tight timeline required. There were signals that stalled EU-UK talks will pick up. The EU has a good record of finding compromises to overcome seemingly intractable problems. But the bigger doubt – as evidenced by this conference – may be around Mrs May’s ability to be able to sell a half-reasonable deal to parliament.