LA Times: In Britain, Tories seek to counter 'Brown bounce' - by Kim Murphy
In Britain, Tories seek to counter 'Brown bounce' - by Kim Murphy
For much of the last year, Britain's ruling Labor Party has been on the run. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair had worn out his welcome. The new leader, Gordon Brown, was seen as boring, morose and too old-style liberal. The man to beat was David Cameron, the young sharp-witted Conservative Party leader. No more. Maybe it's the new prime minister's honeymoon, maybe, as many analysts say, the British are ready to go back to boring and safe after 10 years of silver-tongued Blair. Whatever the case, Britain's Conservatives opened their annual conference here Sunday 7 points behind Labor in the latest polls, struggling to recover their balance and wondering where the glory went.
As Brown huddled with his lieutenants over the weekend pondering whether to call a snap general election to capitalize on Labor's popularity boost, Conservative leaders were retooling their agenda, urging a return to traditional Tory values, calling for aid to first-time home buyers and rethinking some of their "green" tax proposals.
