BRITAIN: The British Conservative leader, Mr Michael Howard, will seek to rally his party with a closing conference speech this morning that must also arrest public disbelief that he will ever be prime minister writes Frank Millar in Bournemouth.
Having made his pitch for Britain's "floating voters" with his first conference address on Tuesday, Mr Howard will try to energise party activists for the electoral challenge ahead. And he is expected to seek to exploit the uncertainty about the future direction and leadership of a third term Labour government following Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's announcement that he intends to stand down sometime during the next parliament. However, Mr Howard will also be anxiously awaiting post-conference season polls for evidence of any significant increase on the current 12 per cent of British voters who say they believe he will ever serve in 10 Downing Street.
Mr Howard's second set-piece speech also comes amid the first signs of behind-the-scenes intrigue over the future leadership of the Conservative Party as a general election next year is still generally expected to result in a historic third Labour victory. On the conference fringe, a number of possible leadership contenders and their allies have been quietly discussing whether Mr Howard might step down immediately after the general election, and whether - if the Conservatives fail to significantly reduce Labour's majority next time - the party should actually "skip a generation" in the search for a new leadership.
However, Mr Howard will allow none of that today as he seeks to persuade his party and the country at large that the Conservatives are still in the fight for victory in the election Mr Blair is expected to call next May or June.
Meanwhile, as crime and punishment dominated yesterday's conference, the Shadow Defence Secretary, Mr Nicholas Soames, opened a fresh assault on Labour, pledging that under the next Conservative government, Britain's armed forces "will no longer be taken for granted as they are today by an ungrateful and shamefully ignorant Labour government".