UK Conservatives move to centre in quest for power
18 Mar 2007 15:41:38 GMT Source: Reuters
By Adrian Croft NOTTINGHAM, England, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Conservatives portrayed themselves as defenders of state-funded health care on Sunday, a step in their reinvention as centrists to challenge the Labour Party's decade-long rule. The Conservatives' two-day spring forum in the central English city of Nottingham was dominated by discussion of strengthening the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) and other public services -- a far cry from the days of their right-wing former premier Margaret Thatcher when tax-cutting, privatisation and individual enterprise topped the agenda. "Today's Conservative Party backs the NHS, head, heart and soul," party leader David Cameron told the conference, trying to reassure voters the Conservatives would not dismantle free health care if they returned to power. Cameron became the fifth Conservative leader in nine years when, in December 2005, he took the helm of a party reeling from three election defeats to Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. Cameron, 40, has tried to transform a party many associate with the tough right-wing policies of Thatcher, "the Iron Lady". He has switched the party's focus from tax-cutting and cracking down on crime to environmental and social issues, trying to reclaim the political centre that Blair has occupied for a decade. The Conservatives have tried to stake out the high ground in the battle against global warming, sparking controversy last week with the suggestion that people who took more than one short-haul flight a year could face higher taxes. OPINION POLL LEAD Cameron's strategy appears to be paying off. A poll in The Sunday Times gave the Conservatives a six-point lead over Labour, whose image has been tarnished by the Iraq war and scandals over government mismanagement and alleged sleaze. For the first time in years, Conservatives scent a chance they can win the next general election, expected in 2009. "I think we now look like the alternative government," Conservative economic spokesman George Osborne told BBC television on Sunday. Elections to Scottish and Welsh parliaments and English councils are due in May. Blair will step down soon after that and Cameron will face a new foe, probably Finance Minister Gordon Brown. The Conservative lead often widens when voters are asked if they prefer Cameron or Brown. But analysts say a mid-term poll lead often does not translate into electoral victory. Some right-wingers are not convinced by the Cameron makeover. In January, two Conservative members of the upper house of parliament quit to join the eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party, declaring the Conservatives under Cameron were not critical enough of the European Union. But delegates in Nottingham overwhelmingly supported their party leader.
