Nine point lead for the Conservatives is still enough for a comfortable majority but the Tories must eliminate hard right wingers within the party during the campaign. The people are fed up with Brown but they don't strive for Thatcherism anymore. David Cameron seems to get it, since he speaks strong against the corporate lobbyist surprisingly. He should pull his strategy towards the political centre, if he wants also some of the previous Labour voters.

What he can't criticise is the Defence secretary because his strategic defence review has made an important contribution to the much needed discussion. Another almost untouchable is the Treasury that handles the crisis in a way that needs not to be perfect but is hard to criticise. One should present an alternative to become a trustful critic. The Tories are obviously incapable of this so far. Either they promise something unreal like cutting taxes for all married couples or, even worse, they miscalculate the impact of their proposed budget deficit cuts, so they look like (incompetent) liars.

The Labour united, after unsuccessful coup detat, behind the Prime Minister, even though, it is temporary of course. So the Tories must come up, apart from criticising the expenses scandal, with something fresh and realistic. They already seem to accept the fact that Britain is only inching out of recession, so big spending cuts must come a bit later than anticipated initially. The lobbying initiative is the right step and undecided voters await more of them soon.

Milan Sebo