BRITAIN: Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the Conservative leadership candidate and former British foreign secretary, yesterday led warnings to the party conference that it must change to win over non-Tory voters or die.
Sir Malcolm used his allotted 20-minute spot in the conference's "beauty contest" to succeed Michael Howard to appeal for a return to one-nation Toryism - principled but practical, inclusive and compassionate - which had served all social classes for centuries. "It is that kind of Conservatism that can not only inspire us ... but can inspire many millions of people out there disillusioned with the Labour party and crying out for a credible but also a sensitive and moderate and practical alternative," he said, before being given a standing ovation.
He was not alone in seeking to combine optimism that Mr Howard had put the party back on the road to power, with realism about the "mountains to climb" in the coming four years against a post-Blair leadership that Tory strategists believe will be easier to beat.
Francis Maude, the party's chairman, warned the conference: "We have no God-given right to survive, let alone to succeed," as he launched an afternoon of calls for modernisation. "Too often we sound like people who just don't like contemporary Britain," he said.
He said two-thirds of voters saw Tories as opportunistic.
Alan Duncan, the transport spokesman, and Theresa May, the culture spokeswoman, also backed pleas for inclusiveness, though Mr Duncan told the delegates it was the media that caricatured them as elderly bigots.
Mr Maude referred to two past Tory leaders as evidence that changing when necessary was one of the party's greatest traditions. "After 1945 and again after 1975, two great leaders gripped this party and forced it to confront life as it was then in contemporary Britain," he said.
"Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher made us the most forward looking of the parties; the party most appealing to younger voters; most in tune with the way they wanted to live their lives."
Ms May urged Tories to show they were comfortable with modern Britain, adding there was no place in the party for "the small minority who don't accept women, or black or gay people, as their equals".
Mr Duncan said the party faced a battle similar to Mrs Thatcher's. "She beat the wets who had failed to appreciate economic change," he said. "We now need to challenge those who have failed to appreciate social change." He attacked those Tory councils trying to block civil partnership ceremonies on their property. He warned the party that "sounding like a mixture of Victor Meldrew and Col Blimp does not constitute a coherent policy or a basis for political appeal". - (Guardian Service)