SAME BRAND, DIFFERENT DISTRIBUTOR:

Cameron's 100 days set the stage for a healthy row (Matthew d'Ancona, 12/03/2006, Sunday Telegraph)

So long is it since the Conservative Party has prospered that some Tories often lose sight of (or, in a few cases, actually fear) what Mr Cameron has achieved since December 6. In a Times poll last week, 40 per cent of the public said that they would vote for the Tory leader at the next election, six points ahead of Gordon Brown. In December, the comparable figures were 41 and 35 per cent.

The distortion in such polls is that Mr Brown is not yet leader of his party and the impact upon public opinion of his accession to the job cannot be known. The Budget, next week, will be especially gripping as the first occasion on which the two men square up across the Despatch Box. But Mr Cameron has already shown that the Chancellor cannot take ultimate victory for granted.

No less important is the transformation that the Tory leader has achieved in public perception of the Conservative Party's motives. Francis Maude, the Tory chairman, has what he calls his "killer slide" - one he used at last year's party conference - which showed that voters' support for a particular policy halved when they learned it was proposed by the Tories.

In effect, the Conservative Party was holding Right-of-Centre ideas hostage, contaminating them by association. In a remarkable turn-around, Mr Cameron has convinced voters that a policy is more deserving of their support when they learn it is advocated by the Conservatives: a Populus poll in December found that the Tory kitemark yielded an average 4 per cent increase in public support when it was slapped on a policy statement. Not since Perrier escaped the shadow of benzene has a brand been so dramatically reprieved.

Throughout the Anglosphere majorities all want the same thing and the sole task of the parties is to claim the mantle of being the ones to deliver it. W took it from the Democrats because Al Gore was a liberal recidivist, but one would have thought Mr. Cameron would have a tougher time with Gordon Brown.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2006 8:10 AM