Mr William Hague lifted Tory hearts yesterday with an impressive conference speech combining his vision of "compassionate" Conservatism, the promise of solid opposition to European Monetary Union (EMU), and an apology for the "great mistake" of Britain's membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).
In his first speech as party leader, Mr Hague renewed his promise of a new tolerance, and his commitment to an inclusive party attractive to Britain's black population and Asians.
In a blistering attack on party factionalism, he vowed: "Never again will the voice of our members go unheard, and never again will we allow the good name of our party to be blackened by the greed and selfishness of a few."
But, while rehearsing the party's "enduring values" of freedom, enterprise, education, nationhood, self-reliance and obligation to others, Mr Hague told the members they should "not be caught polishing our medals from the battles we've fought and won, just when we should be sharpening our swords for the fight that's yet to come."
In those battles, he promised, "principles will matter, beliefs will matter, consistency will matter. Conservatism will matter."
Mocking Mr Tony Blair's speech in Brighton last week, Mr Hague lashed New Labour as a party "for everything but for nothing". And he said "lack of principle" was the "central characteristic of the new Labour government".
"New Labour. They're for everything but for nothing. Tough, tender. Hot, cold. Soft, hard. Fast, slow. For you, for me. To give, to take. To stop, to start. What sort of speech was that last week?" asked Mr Hague. "Mr Blair, full of this, full of that. But what on Earth did it all mean? What is he actually going to do? Well, I think I know. It means that on any issue, at any time, he's happy to tell you one thing and then do something different."
In what will be a dominant theme of Conservative campaigning in the months to come, Mr Hague accused Labour of introducing "a new and deeply unattractive cynicism into British politics. A new cynicism that says it doesn't matter whether a policy is right or wrong but only whether it can be sold to the British people."
Comparing the government to a hologram, Mr Hague said: "It looks so real. But when you reach out to touch it, there's nothing there." Labour had, he charged, lost its moral compass. "They care most about what sounds good, what trips off the tongue, what plays well on the television bulletins, and what gets a headline in tomorrow's papers."
New Labour, he said, "is politics without conscience, politics without values, politics without consistency. It is the politics not of leadership but of manipulation."
But he warned: "They think they've been so clever. But I reckon they've already been too clever by half." And he predicted: "New Labour have certainly changed politics for the time being. Their politics without conscience brought fascination to begin with. Then admiration. But next it will bring disillusion. Finally it will bring contempt."
Promising constructive opposition, Mr Hague said they would support Labour if it really intended to reform the welfare state. And, in a five-line reference to Northern Ireland, he wished the government well in the talks now taking place. "We want to see peace in Northern Ireland," he said. "But we mean peace based on the consent of the people of Northern Ireland."
Mr Hague pointed his party to the imminent battleground of local government elections, signalling a concerted attack on a Labour record he claimed was "rotten to the core".
He said they would fight for seats in the Scottish parliament and "strain every sinew to stop the separatists prising the United Kingdom apart".
Conference roared its approval as Mr Hague denounced the government's plans for constitutional reform, declaring: "I know that Britain is more than the sum of its parts. I come from Yorkshire and I love Wales but I call the United Kingdom my country."
He made it clear that his unionism would be reflected in his opposition to the Euro-federalist tide. Despite the threat of possible frontbench resignations, he declared: "There is a limit to European integration. And in my opinion we are near that limit now."
Delighting Tories with his pledge to oppose the abolition of the pound "for the foreseeable future", Mr Hague said they should look to the future informed by the past: "I remember when we went into the ERM. Almost everyone supported it . . . The stock market soared. We all know what happened next. And the time has come to be brutally candid about those events.
"Looking back . . . I believe going into the ERM was a great mistake. I'm sorry we did it. We should have the courage and confidence to say so. It did enormous damage to the credibility of our party and we paid the price. Black Wednesday, negative equity, sky-high interest rates: we went into something when the time was not right. Let's never let that happen to our country again."
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