Tories ready Blair rival
2005-12-04 08:07
London - After months of soul-searching over their long losing streak, Britain's once-mighty Conservatives will this week come up with an answer to Tony Blair - a man to lead them out of the political wilderness.
Barring an upset, the party will crown the charismatic David Cameron, 39, as their new chief on Tuesday, hoping he can surf his wave of charm all the way into 10 Downing Street.
Battered by three successive election defeats at the hands of Blair's revamped Labour Party, the Conservatives are hoping they have at long last found a leader who can reinvent their party and conjure up the winning magic again.
The home of political titans Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, the Conservatives once dubbed themselves Britain's "natural party of government", and governed continually from 1979 to 1997.
But after more than eight years in the opposition - Cameron, if elected, will be the fifth leader Blair has faced while in power - some pundits believe it is now or never for the party to regain credibility.
Telegenic moderniser Cameron was a virtual unknown six months ago, but now seems certain to beat the more experienced 56-year-old David Davis to the job in a run-off vote among party members.
According to newspaper polls, Cameron is set to win around two thirds of the vote.
The final result will be in on Tuesday, ending a marathon selection process which began when previous leader Michael Howard announced he planned to step down after losing the general election in May this year.
Four leadership candidates were whittled down to two by votes among Conservative members of parliament, giving the party an intriguing final selection.
While Cameron's youth and minimal experience - he has been in parliament only four years - would seem to mark him down as the more radical choice, as a privileged product of the elite Eton private school and Oxford University he fits in well with Conservative traditions.
In contrast, Davis, a former reserve army officer with a broken nose, was brought up by a single mother on a public housing estate.
Despite Davis's significant advantage in experience, Cameron catapulted himself into the limelight in October with a stirring speech to the Conservative's annual conference, a marked contrast to the leaden address of then-front runner Davis.
Pundits - and, more significantly, MPs and party activists - began to see Cameron as the sort of youthful moderniser who could capture the centre ground so long dominated by Blair.
Analysts say Cameron has studiously followed how Blair transformed left-wing Labour into an electable force with tightly-controlled, media-savvy presentation backed by avowedly centrist policies.
During the long leadership campaign, Davis has set out detailed plans on several policies, such as reducing taxation, while Cameron has spoken mainly in general terms.
If he takes the leadership, Cameron could face a general election as late as May 2010 - when he would likely face Blair's finance minister and heir apparent Gordon Brown - and he is under no illusion as to the potential challenge ahead.
"We persist in losing elections because our culture and attitudes are out of step with 21st century Britain," his manifesto states.
Cameron has warned against underestimating the scale of the task, or the painful questions Conservatives must face if they are to regenerate themselves as an electable party.