The odd good joke aside, there was something unusually dull about the DUP’s weekend conference. How times have changed.

 

Yes it was really well organised.

 

It was slick and everything a modern, media savvy, political event should be – including the first ever live television broadcast of an Ulster party conference.

 

Of all the local parties, the DUP is now undoubtedly leading the way in terms of professionalism and organisation.

 

But if that is a positive reflection of the character and ability of new leader Peter Robinson, it is also a reflection of his eye for detail and controlling approach (and the position the DUP is now in, as a party of government) that proceedings lacked the heart and soul, of times gone by.

 

It used to be that you could depend on the DUP to be the highlight of conference season; like them or loathe them, you were assured stirring speeches, barbed (wicked) political comment and often hilarious comedy and satire.

 

Even the media in attendance would be forced to suspend impartiality for a moment, unable to resist a giggle

 

Ok, that’s not what serious politics is primarily about – and it was the stuff of Opposition, when the DUP is now engaged in a serious business.

 

But if you can’t stir the party faithful, boost morale and release the pressure at the conference, once a year, then when can you do it?

 

Not that the DUP conference has been an annual event in recent years; it was a couple of years since the last one.

 

And, perhaps, that was part of the problem.

 

Gone was Ian Paisley – no longer leader and at a church engagement in Liverpool; the days when he held an audience captive over.

 

Absent too was party prankster and conference court jester Sammy Wilson – attending the civic reception for the Armed Forces in Larne.

 

And also lost was the savage and sneering wrath of the Peter Robinson, of old. Replaced by the milder mannered statesman, that must befit the position of First Minister.

 

In short, the entertainment value was thin on the ground.

 

Jim Allister’s name raised a couple of pantomime boos and hisses.

 

And there was just the odd joke.

 

Nigel Dodds raised a laugh when noting that Sir Reg Empey had courted the PUP, Tories and TUV. “Next it will be UTV,” he quipped, “is Ken Reid here? He better watch out.”

 

Jim Wells and Edwin Poots chipped in, and the leader even ventured down the road of wife Iris not being one for the spotlight.

 

But ultimately, it was standard political fare and not what we had once been accustomed too.

 

In an era where political characters have become thin on the ground, it seems even the DUP has conformed to the template.

 

Party supporters can rightly argue it is not characters but safe hands and assured policies that people will vote for.

 

But regardless of that, the DUP and local politics are increasingly swapping colour for shades of grey.