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"It's all about him" is how one cabinet minister described Boris Johnson's week in Manchester at the Conservative conference.

The platform was his. The Tory party truly is his.

His closing speech was almost as much about entertaining the home crowd as outlining new policy.

But little matter, perhaps. In that room - at that moment - the prime minister was in total command of his party, and politically dominant in the country, unafraid to weave together clashing political traditions.

A Conservative leader raising tax to pay for the health service, and cheered for promising to send protesters "snugly" to jail.

The size of his political personality and ambition leaves little oxygen for anyone else here, let alone air for the opposition to breathe.

But that alone can't be a match for the scale of the country's problems. Charisma is not a substitute for solutions for concerns firms and families hold right now.

And away from this conference that persona can grate as well as delight. The prime minister says he seeks to unite, but is a divisive figure.

One of Mr Johnson's colleagues suggested that he's a politician on a bungee cord - he leaps to plummet, then soars to great heights, then drops again.

There are plenty of acute problems this autumn and, of course, unforeseen events that could drag him down.

But many Tories believe they leave Manchester tonight on their way to a fifth term in office - a modern record that the prime minister would love to set.