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Is Blair Mark II up to it?

If imitation is indeed the best form of flattery, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has reason to feel immensely flattered by the Conservative party's choice of David Cameron as its new leader. What can be more flattering than seeing your main political opponents elect as their leader a man who not only sounds like you but takes pride in portraying himself as your "heir"? Mr. Cameron, chosen with an overpowering majority of the party's 250,000 members in a bitterly contested election this week, has made no secret that Mr. Blair is his role model. And his one-point mission is to re-brand — and turn around — a demoralised Conservative party the way Mr. Blair transformed Labour when it was in similar straits. So after three successive and humiliating general election defeats, have the Tories finally found a leader who can steer them out of the political wilderness? Will he succeed where his three more experienced predecessors — William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, and Michael Howard — failed? On the face of it, the party's decision to put its future in the hands of one of its youngest and most inexperienced M.Ps. is a desperate throw of the dice. The Times (now a tabloid, and not merely in format, it seems) greeted his election with a screaming three-word headline, "The great gamble," echoing the view of many of the new leader's colleagues.

Mr. Cameron is just 39, has been an M.P. for four years, boasts of no significant political pedigree, has absolutely no leadership experience, and until a few months ago was virtually unknown outside the Westminster `village'. No doubt he is bright (and not necessarily because of his Eton and Oxford background), oozes charisma, and can make the right noises. His post-victory speech was full of passion and platitude: he would strive to change the way Conservatives "think," "look," and "behave"; end the "scandalous under-representation" of women in the party; reach out to all sections in the country; and steer the Conservatives away from "Punch and Judy politics" by adopting a more consensual approach. He wanted the party to become a "voice for hope, for optimism, and for change." Naturally, he invited "everyone" to join the "modern, compassionate Conservative party" he intended to build. Brave words, and spoken in the vein expected of a self-confessed Blair Mark II. But as Alastair Campbell, Mr. Blair's former communications chief and one of the architects of New Labour, noted: "Yes, he can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?" So, is it all style and presentation? Or is there some substance behind the rhetoric? On key issues such as public services and taxes, Mr. Cameron has been tantalisingly vague, inviting the criticism that he has no coherent alternative agenda to offer. Winning the leadership contest was the easy part. It is reshaping a reactionary party mired in ideological confusion that will test his mettle. Is he up to it?

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