Cats and credit cards may have dominated the news agenda, but legal issues were still big talking points behind the scenes. So what did we find out from the Manchester shindig?

1) The Tories are not for turning.

Thatcher’s children appear to have taken her maxim to heart, on justice issues at least. On legal aid cuts and compensation costs reform, the Conservatives are steadfast: change is coming and they won’t be blown off course. Deficit reduction was the main talking point throughout the bars and fringe meetings of the conference, and the justice department must take the strain, with the £350m cut from the legal aid budget merely collateral damage in the ongoing war on debt.

Not a single Conservative, be it minister of backbencher, gave any indication this is a fight they are prepared to stand down from. Any objectors may as well have been whistling in the chilly Manchester wind.

2) They believe they have public support.

Want to know how importantly the party’s elite regards legal aid cuts? Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke delivered a 1,400-word speech to the party faithful containing just a single reference to legal aid, and that was to denounce the ‘excessive spending’.

Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly was resolute: ‘the public believes we spend too much on legal aid’ - and he’s probably right. The mood amongst most in Manchester was that MoJ resources would be better spent on prisons and victims of crime. Those banging the drum for legal aid aren’t banging anywhere nearly hard enough.

3) There is little love for solicitors.

Conservative MP Ben Gummer strode into the lion’s den of a meeting in which the vast majority of the audience were solicitors. What followed was not so much him coming out fighting as flying into an unrestrained bloodthirsty assault on the entire profession. Solicitors need to ‘get real’, their warnings about legal aid cuts are ‘irresponsible’ and the Law Society is simply interested in self-preservation rather than concerned with justice.

At one point there were fears he may not get out alive, but the point was made (and Gummer probably took a step nearer to a ministerial post). This government either distrusts solicitors, or it sees political mileage in making the public believe it does. Either way, there are rocky times ahead.

4) Not everything is rosy in the Conservative garden.

The week began inauspiciously for Djanogly, with uncomfortable headlines around his financial interests. Describing them as ‘written by the gutter press’, as he apparently did at a fringe meeting on Monday, did him little favours with the Guardian and Telegraph journalists in attendance.

This is an issue the party needs like a black cat crossing Theresa May’s path, and the PR chiefs won’t put up with such negative publicity for long. If Ed Miliband gained capital last week from his call for a fairer capitalism, any hint of cosying up to big business will not be welcomed by Tory HQ.

5) The organisers certainly had a sense of humour.

The fringe meeting on ‘The dangers of excess alcohol’ was at 8.30am on Tuesday. Judging by the look of delegates later in the day, few had attended or heeded its warning.