BRITAIN: Britain's opposition leader, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, rallied his flagging Conservative party yesterday, calling on the faithful to stop living on past glories and move ahead with a reform-minded agenda that could win back the hearts and votes of the public.
"The Conservatives are back," Mr Duncan Smith said during a closing speech at the Tory's annual conference.
But the Tory leader, under pressure to resign over claims he has been a lacklustre leader, said his once-mighty party must shed its elitist image if it wanted to overcome humiliating defeats by Labour in 1997 and 2001.
Mr Duncan Smith, leader for the past year, said the moment was ripe to remake the party in the image of "compassionate conservatism", a slogan that helped elect President Bush in 2000.
"It is right to be proud of the past, but it is wrong to try and live in the past. The country has moved on and so must we," he said. "This will be remembered as the week when the Conservatives began the slow, hard road back to power.
"All of us here want to remember the good things we did and there were many - but beyond this hall people too often remember the hurt we caused and the anger they felt.
"Well I say this to you: Never again. Never again can we take the people of Britain for granted. Until people see that our party has learned the lessons of 1997, we will go on getting the result of 1997."
A survey published on Monday in the Daily Telegraph showed support for Tories at a 20-year low, with just 10 per cent of respondents saying the party was ready for government. Only 5 per cent felt that Mr Duncan Smith's leadership was "strong and effective", and 40 per cent called it "weak and ineffectual".
During a speech delivered in a monotone, during which he kept his eyes glued to his notes, Mr Duncan Smith reiterated his calls for public service reform, giving a Conservative spin to issues that have been the bread and butter of the Labour platform.
The British Prime Minister and Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, had "promised so much to so many", leading to the ruin of Britain's public services, he said.
During the four-day conference in Bournemouth, delegates were told to focus more on social issues: the fight against poverty, the plight of battered women, public services - but from a decidedly Conservative stance.
Mr Duncan Smith renewed his argument for more choice for taxpayers, saying the state should help to finance private-sector solutions for schools and hospitals.
"We believe that when people are given the power to choose they choose to do the best for themselves and their families," he said, arguing that "just because the state funds our public services it doesn't need to run our public services."
He believes government should finance patients for private-sector medical needs and should give all families, not just wealthy ones, the chance to educate their children at private schools. "The privileges of the few must be turned into the opportunities for the many."
Mr Duncan Smith, a 47-year-old former army officer and euro-sceptic, had words during his speech for his naysayers. "Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man," he said. - (AFP)