Mr William Hague will maintain his high energy assault on Labour this morning with a Tory manifesto defining tax, crime, Europe and "Labour's failure to deliver" at key election battlegrounds.
Barely 48 hours after the Prime Minister called the June 7th poll, Mr Hague will make his pitch to "the ordinary people" of Britain, telling them "it's time for common sense".
Unveiling wide-ranging policies aimed at pensioners and families with young children, he will pledge "quality of life" commitments for "all the stages of life" under a future Conservative government.
Mr Hague will promise to "set the people free" by cutting their taxes and enabling them to spend more of their own money. And he will promise to encourage "the responsible society", with incentives for hard-working families, a new married couples' allowance and a commitment to take one million pensioners out of tax altogether. Future pensioners will also be promised the right to direct national insurance payments into funded alternatives to the state pension system.
Mr Hague will also challenge Labour on its chosen ground of reform of and investment in the major public services. The Tory manifesto is expected to develop earlier proposals to "free" schools from local Education Authority control, empowering head teachers to set their own discipline and admissions policies. Mr Hague will promise to "set doctors and nurses free" to pursue "clinical priorities not political priorities". And on crime the Tory leader will promise to give priority to the rights of victims of crime rather than the perpetrators.
One of the strongest sections of the Conservative manifesto will concentrate on Europe, and Britain's need to retain its independence by "being in Europe and not run by Europe". Mr Hague will argue it is "common sense" that Britain , with the fourth largest economy in the world, should be able to make a success of its own currency.
Mr Hague kept up his frenetic start to the election campaign yesterday, addressing journalists in a Battersea Park bathed in early morning sunshine against a backdrop of five vans bearing advertisements mocking Labour's five big promises of the 1997 election.
They read - Class sizes are bigger; The asylum system is in chaos; Taxes are increasing; NHS waiting lists are longer; Violent crime is rising. The Tory leader received an unexpected and unusual boost with an opinion poll showing doctors switching support from Labour to the Conservatives.