This morning Eric Pickles was the subject of George Osborne’s humour.

“‘Economic adviser to Gordon Brown…’” the chancellor said.

“I’m not sure I’d put that on my CV if I were Ed Balls. It’s like ‘personal trainer to Eric Pickles.’

“Although I have to say, when it comes to chasing down council waste, no one runs faster than our Eric.”

This afternoon it was Eric’s turn to be the comedian. But it seems he is better received as the butt of jokes, than the mouthpiece.

Even his best material received a half-hearted response from the audience.

“You won’t be surprised to learn that me and Mrs Pickles are partial to the odd scone and a warm beverage in a National Tea Room,” he said, to polite tittering from the hall.

It’s not really his fault. The policies he announced today had been trailed and leaked in the days leading up to his speech.

We’d heard about the fund to support weekly rubbish collections. Or as Pickles put it: “Nobody expects the town hall binqisition.”

We knew about the clamp down on union ‘pilgrims’.

“If unions want to raise money for Labour – do it on your own time, not on the rates,” said the communities and local government secretary.

“We’re going to call time on this last closed shop.”

And we knew about ending spending via the government procurement card.

(Although Pickles still managed a florid turn on the situation…)

“Take the example of Labour blowing £5,000 on my department’s officials having a staff away day at a club…. A club which features Showgirl Sensation Amber Topaz and her exotic chum, Lady Beau Peep.”

He finished, fists clenched, banging the pulpit.

“You can feel that the power is shifting – back to you, back to your communities, back in the right direction… Together, we will shake off the shackles of Labour and Britain will be great again.”

It brought around half the audience to its feet.

It doesn’t matter though. The Conservative Party will always be chummy to Eric Pickles, especially when he's bashing Labour.