Peter Oborne

A question of trust

Peter Oborne compares the fanatical, messianic and dishonest Tony Blair with the measured, sane and assured Michael Howard. Only one of them is fit to lead this country, and it is not the Prime Minister

issue 09 October 2004

Since his sudden emergence in the 1990s Tony Blair has easily eclipsed three successive Conservative leaders: John Major, William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. No prime minister for a century has dominated his opponents in such an emphatic way and for so long.

The 2004 party conference season has changed this landscape. It is now possible to assert something which it has not been possible to claim without risk of ridicule since 1992. The present leader of the Conservative party would make a more competent and reassuring prime minister than his Labour counterpart.

There are two reasons for this confidence: the degradation of Tony Blair, and the simultaneous emergence of Michael Howard as the strongest Tory leader since the early Thatcher period. This process culminated in Tuesday’s party conference speech.

First: the degradation of Tony Blair. For the first five years of his term of office he made the British people feel comfortable.

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