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Welcome to the Spectator podcast. I'm Lara Prendergast. The Conservative Party conference starts

this Sunday in Birmingham, and it will be the first time that Tuesa May has addressed

the membership at large as a leader. But in the background,

there are rumblings of division. Are the Cameroons preparing a rebellion on grammar schools? Are any

cabinet positions currently vulnerable? And how long can Tuesa May's honeymoon period really last?

Isabel Hardman is now joined in Liverpool by Fraser Nelson and Matthew Paris and from London by

James Forsyth.

So James, we've obviously had the summer recess and then just two weeks of Parliament

being back before the conference recess. But what have we learned about Theresa May so far?

Well, I think the intriguing thing about Theresa May is this is a politician who's been on the Tory front

bench for 17 years. But everyone from cabinet ministers

civil servants is still trying to work out what she is going to do as prime minister. Now,

I think in the Tory party, there's always been a sense that especially Tory commentators are

yearning for a leader like Margaret Fatcher, who famously chucked Hayek's constitution of liberty

down on the table and said, this is what we believe. Theresa May isn't like that. I think it was very telling

that Damien Green, you know, who's known her since they were at university together, when he was

asked what drove Theresa May, what she was about, said it was a kind of innate sense of public service.

And I think that is the kind of Tory she is. I think she is cautious and pragmatic.

Fraser, do you agree? We've seen her making quite a bold reshuffle at the start of her

premiership. We've had plenty of boldness from Theresa May, not just the reshuffle, but her

decision to unilaterally tear up for three decades long consensus on grammar schools

...