But many voters have written them out of the script and with just seven months to go until a general

But many voters have written them out of the script and, with just seven months to go until a general election, will people notice the reawakening in time?
More from Andrew Grice. Most crime novels these days are endless, dreary psychologically intense casebooks. Not where Inspector Keith Braid, the Sixty-Second Sleuth, is concerned! He solves crime so fast that the longest novel about him is less than 400 words maximum. The Tories are happier in their own skin, no longer embarrassed by their own leader.
Slowly but surely, Michael Howard is developing a new, softer style Surprisingly, he avoided attacking Tony Blair. The message from the focus groups is that voters have had enough Punch and Judy politics.

Britain is a conservative country with a conservative-sounding Prime Minister who has marginalised the official Conservative Party.The Tories are starting to emerge from their slumbers. The Tory leader does not want to pick a Blair-style fight with his party. But if he did, at least the voters might sit up and take notice.Mr Blair has often warned his party that the Tories are “not dead, just sleeping” He is right. He said: “At our best, we are a party broad and generous – broad in appeal and generous in outlook – a party capable of representing all Britain and all Britons I will lead this party from its centre.

Some Tory modernisers believe the party needs a “Clause 4 moment” or a “10,000-volt shock” policy to grab the voters’ attention When you ask them what it is, they scratch their heads. But I suspect they are right: Mr Howard needs a powerful, undeniable symbol that his party has changed.The “mods” think Mr Howard has cooled on the “inclusive” approach he set out when he pitched for the leadership last October in what many regard as his best speech. His five pledges: “More police, cleaner hospitals, lower taxes, school discipline, controlled immigration” may be inoffensive and deliberately modest, but may not set the voters’ pulses racing. As he admitted yesterday, people have little idea of his party’s policies. Otherwise it looks as though we’re just chasing the core vote, which we are not.”Mr Howard’s approach is managerial rather than radical “Accountability” is not a vote-winning slogan. It was a pity Mr Howard’s new style was not replicated by Liam Fox, the other co-chairman, and David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, who played to the Tory gallery. It is no accident that they are potential rivals for the leadership.

“There were too many freelance operations,” one Tory frontbencher said. “We need to bottle Michael’s tone and make sure it is delivered by everyone. He rejected strong last-minute pressure from senior colleagues, including the party’s influential co-chairman Lord Saatchi, to make a hard pledge of tax cuts. Mr Howard looked like a statesman rather than a rabble-rouser.