While Mr Tony Blair was making his official announcement on the general election, Tory leader
Mr William Hague was already on the campaign trail.
He launched his campaign with a soapbox address to supporters in which he promised to "give you back your country''.
A beaming Mr Hague, flanked by wife Ffion in Watford town centre, Hertfordshire, insisted that despite opinion polls putting his party up to 18 points behind Labour, he was confident of victory.
He identified crime, taxes, discipline in schools and Europe as key issues on which he will fight.
The aim of his campaign would be to reach out beyond Westminster to "the real people of our country'' who are appalled by "political correctness" and by the loss of British sovereignty to Europe, he said.
Speaking on the street outside a nightclub named Destiny, Mr Hague said: "If people want in this election a party that will hit crime hard, keep your taxes down, improve local schools and keep the pound, that is what they will get from the Conservative Party.''
Liberal Democrat leader Mr Charles Kennedy declared his party was "raring to go''.
Mr Kennedy, who also visited a London school today, said: "The feedback we have been getting is good. The opportunity is there to get our message across.
"It was a tough task last time but we are starting from a much bigger base both in terms of personnel and MPs. We want a constructive rather than destructive campaign.''
PA