Cameron has all to play for

Yet the Labour leader’s decision to return his party to a clearly socialist agenda also provides the Prime Minister with a real opportunity as the Tories meet in Manchester for their own annual gathering.

For the first time in a generation, there is clear blue water between the two main parties as Labour retreats from a centre ground that had become increasingly crowded since Tony Blair led Labour on to traditional Tory territory almost 20 years ago.

Mr Cameron, however, must proceed carefully. In the next election, the prospect of lower energy bills will have a strong doorstep appeal and it will not be enough for the Conservatives to counter this with dry economic arguments about the inefficiencies of state control and the workings of the wholesale gas market.

Instead, the Tory leader must show that he, too, understands voters’ concerns about the cost of living and the lack of affordable homes and demonstrate how he would address these by introducing genuine competition into the energy market to drive down prices, or by cutting through the planning and labour regulations that prevent construction companies from building on much of the land that they own.

With his promised Government mortgage guarantees, Mr Cameron is showing that he grasps the needs of those struggling to get on the housing ladder. But he has a long way to go to reassure a suspicious electorate that the Tories really understand what life is like for the majority of people.

From his comments at the weekend, the Prime Minister clearly realises that, for all those who are thrilled by Mr Miliband’s pledges, there will be many Labour voters, won over to the party by Mr Blair, who feel effectively disenfranchised by their leader’s lurch to the Left.

The challenge now for Mr Cameron is to show these voters that the Conservative Party is their natural home while also looking after those Tories tempted to vote for the UK Independence Party which, polling shows, will be Mr Miliband’s key ally in helping Labour to take the battleground seats that will decide the General Election.

This will not be easy, but thanks to Mr Miliband, Mr Cameron now has the chance to convince a vast range of voters that the Tories have the policies to ensure that Britain becomes a fairer, freer and more prosperous country.

This is why any relief in Manchester this week that the economic recovery is finally underway must be accompanied by the determination to show how everyone can benefit from that.

Debating drugs

THERE is nothing new in calls for the decriminalisation of Class A drugs. What is unusual, however, is for the call to come from a senior policeman.

The Chief Constable of Durham, Mike Barton, points out that, if addicts were allowed access to heroin or crack cocaine through the NHS, then the criminals who control the drugs trade would be denied the revenue that keeps them in business.

It is ironic, however, that Mr Barton makes his call at a time when use of heroin and crack is actually falling and when the latest problem is the rapid growth in so-called legal highs, drugs which are already decriminalised.

Nor would many people say that the use of ever stronger types of cannabis 
is not a problem, even though the usual police response to cannabis possession is now a warning which does not create a criminal record.

The argument for decriminalisation is a powerful and seductive one, but the idea that drugs become much less of a problem in society once they are legally available is not one that stands up to scrutiny.

Mr Barton is right that Britain’s drugs laws are outdated, but any review should not start from the viewpoint that decriminalisation is the way forward.

Our mutual friend

IT IS an ironic side-effect of the Government’s Funding for Lending scheme that many lenders have actually become even more inactive as a result.

Too many banks and building societies have 
come to rely on this cheap source of ready money, raising the prospect that, once the scheme ends in 2015, small firms and prospective home-buyers will once again be struggling for cash.

It is encouraging, then, that Yorkshire Building Society has shown enterprise in raising £500m from institutional investors, allowing it to increase lending to home-buyers.

It is a sign of the confidence that the market has in lenders such as YBS that investors are prepared to back its fundraising initiative in such enthusiastic style and that the Bradford-based mutual was able to borrow the money at a cheaper than expected rate.

But it also a worrying indication that, when Government schemes come to an end, interest rates start to rise and a new era of uncertainty begins, too many lenders will again be keeping the purse-strings tightly tied.