BRITAIN: British prime minister Tony Blair has admitted his controversial school reforms are "a highwire act", while showing no inclination yet to climb down and seek a compromise with Labour rebels.
And while saying he was not laying any bets on the Conservatives supporting his flagship proposals, Mr Blair yesterday appeared at least to leave the door open to the possibility of a cross-party consensus to defeat the threatened Labour rebellion.
The latest manoeuvres in the growing education debate came as Tory leader David Cameron continued his repositioning of his party with a firm pledge to put the stability of the British economy ahead of the party's traditional commitment to tax cuts.
In a keynote speech in the City of London, shadow chancellor George Osborne promised that under a Conservative government economic growth would eventually outpace public spending, creating "a sustainable path to lower taxes".
But in an echo of Chancellor Gordon Brown's early commitment of New Labour to fiscal prudence, Mr Osborne said lower taxes would not be the priority of an incoming Tory administration.
"If the public finances are in a mess, then sorting them out will have to take priority over promises of tax cuts," vowed Mr Osborne. "That is because stability, fiscal responsibility and competitiveness all come together in the new Conservative approach to the economy - stability to protect your mortgage, responsibility to look after your family's budget, competitiveness to provide jobs and prosperity in the years to come."
Mr Cameron's attack on his party's "negatives" has already given the Conservatives the lead in a number of polls, and apparently persuaded voters he is pulling the party back on to the centre ground of British politics.
However, the new Tory leader suffered a setback when Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the News International media empire, suggested that while Mr Cameron was "charming" and "bright", his leadership thus far had been mainly about image.
In a rare interview with the BBC, Mr Murdoch said: "I'd really like to know a little bit more about what his vision is for the future of this country and his people. You know, some facts and some real policies - rather than a lot of throwaway positions they take to change your image; so much so that, if you believe everything he says, there's not going to be an alternative between him and a New Labour government."
Mr Murdoch also expressed his admiration for Chancellor Brown and his Calvinist work ethic, while backing Mr Blair's education plans.
At his monthly press conference yesterday Mr Blair maintained his proposals to "empower" parents and pupils in trust schools enjoying greater independence from local authority control were based on the evidence of what worked, and would not lead to the return of selection by academic ability.
He insisted the debate - which the Labour Party needed to have - went to core questions about the role of central and local government: "Is the role of government to help put power in your hands to do what you want? Or is the role of government to tell you what you want?"
Mr Blair dismissed as extraordinary the argument recently attributed to deputy prime minister John Prescott that making some schools better created the problem of more people wanting their children to go to them, thus creaming off the best pupils to the disadvantage of the rest. "I'm sure he can't have said it in quite that way," offered Mr Blair, while suggesting this was not an argument that ministers would be able to make to the public.