Tory Cameron tries to out-Blair Tony in effort to woo centrist voters

London Briefing: Somebody in Conservative Central Office has clearly decided that the only way the Tories can win the next general election is to adopt as many New Labour policies as possible.

Somebody has told David Cameron, the new Tory leader, that he has to sound more Blairite than Tony Blair himself.

Last week, Cameron tore up the last Conservative manifesto (which he wrote) and committed himself to the NHS, more or less in its current form. Subsidising people to go private is now out and the Thatcherite decision to give tax breaks for private medical insurance has been criticised.

Naturally enough, Cameron has committed the Conservatives to more reform of the NHS than Labour, which wouldn't be hard, and we await with baited breath the details of the changes.

Oddly, there seems to be an appeal to the voluntary sector to get more involved in supplying NHS services.

Those famously flexible NHS trades unions will no doubt welcome these proposals with open arms.

Cameron has been at pains to give the impression that where he is different to Blair, it is simply by wanting to do more, to go further.

No reversals or unwinding of New Labour strategy, just more of same - much more, wherever possible.

As one of the BBC's political correspondent's recent said, the "Blair lite" tag already associated with the new Tory leader will soon be changed to "Blair full strength".

So far, all of this seems to be working; the Conservatives have pulled ahead of Labour in some opinion polls.

In another keynote speech this week, Cameron executed another neat U-turn with the announcement that student fees are to be retained.

Blair personally pushed through this much hated (by the most of his Labour colleagues) measure in an attempt to grant universities some limited financial autonomy.

British universities are shackled by state intervention and are falling further behind their US counterparts. Blair and Cameron both know that the only way to raise standards is to allow more market forces to operate.

This, of course, is anathema to most of the parliamentary Labour party, committed as they are to maintaining absolute standards of mediocrity.

Tuition fees paid by students this year could be as high as £3,000 (€4,300). It was always nonsense for the Conservatives to oppose this measure, as they did under the previous leadership.

The attacks they made on the government's proposals amounted to pure opportunism of the most cynical kind.

Proper financing of the universities is essential if they are to remain relevant and the only place the money can come from is the customers, the students themselves.

Tony Blair adopted Tory-style policies when he proposed tuition fees and the Tory party promptly opposed him. That's politics, I suppose.

The problem for all British politicians is that the race to occupy as much of the centre ground as possible can produce few winners and it's mighty tough to distinguish yourself from the competition.

But the new era of everybody trying to be more Blairite than Blair is actually quite welcome. It means that nobody is going to introduce violent changes in policy that could destabilise the economy.

With politics in its current shape, we could see the economy grow for years without experiencing a decent downturn. Not one inspired domestically, at least.

Whether or not all of this is just a cynical attempt to gain power by saying things the electorate wants to hear remains to be seen.

Why the electorate seems to respond to the Blairite message is also a bit of a mystery. Perhaps the view is that, excluding Iraq, Blair hasn't done too bad a job: he has managed to keep the chancellor's socialist instincts in check; unemployment is low; the economy has only experienced the mildest of slowdowns and house prices are still growing, albeit modestly.

Of course, Gordon Brown might well have a view on all of this. He will be slightly perturbed to see that Cameron has an even bigger lead in the polls when people are asked about a straight Brown/Cameron contest. Brown is going to have to find a platform to distinguish - or differentiate himself - on.

We will only know if Cameron means what he says if he wins power in 2009.

Having jettisoned one manifesto, we might be forgiven for suspecting that the next might prove to be equally fragile.

But that would be cynical, wouldn't it?

Chris Johns is an investment strategist with Collins Stewart. All opinions are personal.