BRITAIN: The Liberal Democrats' leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, yesterday trained his sights on the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, urging party activists to be more ambitious in taking the fight to his "shop-soiled" Labour government.
In a keynote speech to a Brighton conference buoyed by a by-election victory and record poll ratings, Mr Kennedy said Mr Blair's time was running out, while the Liberal Democrats were "the party of the future".
War in Iraq, failing public services, soaring council tax bills and the Hutton Inquiry had destroyed voters' trust in the prime minister and left them in despair over his government, he said.
His presidential style had allowed a "small clique" of unelected advisers to drive Britain into war in the face of widespread public disquiet.
Mr Kennedy demanded that the prime minister now publish the Attorney General's legal advice sanctioning war in Iraq, and renewed his call for a full independent inquiry into the decision to commit troops.
A year after declaring his aim of supplanting the Tories as the main Westminster opposition, Mr Kennedy heaped scorn on Mr Iain Duncan Smith's party as "charlatans and chancers", heading for third-party status.
With no councillors in cities like Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle and London boroughs like Islington and Haringey, the Tories were "not a truly national party any more".
"Last year, I said it was a realistic ambition for us to start overtaking the Conservatives in British politics," he said.
"This year, be in no doubt - we are overtaking the Conservatives. Be in no doubt - we are the only credible challenge to the government." But the main focus of attack in an unusually sharp-edged speech was the man he referred to as "the future former prime minister".
He challenged Labour backbenchers to help defeat the government in the Commons vote on university top-up fees.