It’s in the air. I can feel it. My friends can feel it. The Conservatives can feel it. Labour can feel it. And if you were behind in the polls when a possible snap election was in the air, you would be forgiven for sounding desperate in your speech to your party conference, wouldn’t you?

Well David Cameron would never have been forgiven if there was even a twinge of desperation in his voice. If he had crashed and burned it could well have signalled the end of the Conservative Party.

There is still no certainty about a snap election, however, as Boris Johnson points out: “after three weeks of solid havering this putative election has less snap than a piece of celery lost at the bottom of the fridge”.

If there were an election tomorrow, the Conservative Party would lose. The media knows it, Gordon Brown knows it and David Cameron certainly knows it. That is why calling Brown’s bluff and calling for an Autumn election was not just stupid, it was brave and signalled the strength of the Conservative Party’s leader.

Speculation is rife on the internet on whether or not Cameron is the first person to use the word “pissed” in a conference speech. Speculation is also rife now as to whether the speech was strong enough to “stave off an election“.

Guido Fawkes says that the press were “if not bedazzled, not unimpressed”. Adam Boulton said that “Tories I spoke to genuinely seemed to think that he had advanced their cause”. And Shane Greer said that “The Conservative Party is back and if anyone should be concerned about their future then it’s Gordon Brown”.

So it seems the bloggers are happy, the media are happy (I am very happy). Now it is up to Gordon Brown to make the next move as David Cameron challenged: “Call that election. We will fight – Britain will win.”

You can see a full summary of the speech over on ConservativeHome, or you can watch the speech in full below (direct from conservatives.tv).

[media:http://www.conservatives.com/UploadedFiles/VIDEOFLV/3624/video-cameronconf07-2007.flv]