BRITAIN: British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair faced a New Year challenge from his main rival yesterday when the Opposition party leader ran an eye-catching, double-page newspaper advertisement outlining his political beliefs.
In the ad, Conservative Party chief Mr Michael Howard set out a 16-point credo starting each paragraph with the words, "I believe" in large, bold letters - echoing the former US president John F. Kennedy's famous phrase from a 1960s speech.
"I believe it is natural for men and women to want health, wealth and happiness for their families and themselves," Mr Howard (62) said in the advertisement carried by the London Times newspaper.
Since his appointment in November, Mr Howard has revitalised his struggling party and tried to claw back support from Mr Blair, whose public trust ratings tumbled in 2003 over Iraq and faced rebellion within his party on key policies.
One recent opinion poll put Mr Howard slightly ahead of Mr Blair, although analysts say the Tories are still unlikely to win the next election, expected in 2005.
Media and political commentators immediately drew comparisons between Mr Howard's ad and Mr Kennedy's 1960 speech to church leaders in Texas in which he repeated the phrase "I believe", as well as civil rights campaigner Rev Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" address in 1963.
Mr Howard's 16 core beliefs will form the basis of the Conservative party manifesto as it tries to mount a serious challenge to Mr Blair's Labour Party at the next election, expected in 2005. The Conservative leader pledged to avoid "nannying" voters with "armies of interferers" and said he would not allow government to grow too big. His other pledges covered everything from education and health to equal opportunities and defence.
Labour, which swept to power with a huge majority in 1997, rubbished Mr Howard's pledges.
"He has got to be judged against his record not his dreams," the Deputy Prime Minister Mr John Prescott told BBC radio.
The message was devised by the party's co-chairman Mr Maurice Saatchi, the advertising guru who created the slogan "Labour isn't Working" for Thatcher's victorious 1979 election campaign.
"I want people to understand the set of beliefs which brought me into politics," Mr Howard said in a statement.
Meanwhile, shadow chancellor Mr Oliver Letwin warned yesterday that Chancellor Gordon Brown would have to impose either massive cuts in public sector spending or massive increases in tax during the next parliament if Labour won the next general election.
If Mr Brown chooses to keep increasing spending at the current rate, taxes could soar by almost 50 per cent in real terms by the end of the next economic cycle, he predicted.
After five years of public spending restraint between 1997 and 2002, Mr Brown has committed the Government to a programme of major investment in hospitals, schools and other public services up to 2007. - (Reuters, PA)