The Tory party conference is more like a bleak seaside arcade than a carnival

On a quick wander around the exhibition centre at the 2025 Tory party conference, one woman’s face seems to appear everywhere you look.

But it’s not current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch – in fact, it’s hard to track down anything at all featuring her face in the vast main hall of the Manchester Central Convention Complex.

No, it’s the late Margaret Thatcher. The 1980s PM pops up on Christmas baubles, whisky tumblers, cardboard cut-outs and – most impressive of all – a mosaic made up of hundreds of attendee headshots.

There’s a good reason for this: next Monday marks the 100th anniversary of the Iron Lady’s birth, and there are a bunch of events taking place to celebrate.

The sheer scale of the Thatcher-fest this year throws up an interesting question, though. What would this confe