A MONTH ago the best the Conservatives could have expected from the next General Election was a damage limitation exercise; to claw back some of the support lost in the 1997 landslide in the hope of mounting a realistic challenge to Labour in four or five years' time.

A disastrous late summer for Tony Blair - the Dome fiasco and the fuel protest - has stripped Labour of its air of electoral invincibility. The next election is no longer a forgone conclusion.

Their gains in the opinion polls appear to have caught the Conservatives on the hop. They went into their annual conference still armed with the defensive tactics of a damage-limitation exercise.

We have not seen the all-guns-blazing barrage from a potential Government-in-waiting.

Instead of credible, carefully crafted policies, we have witnessed a mixture of rhetoric, nebulosity and contradictions.

From Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo a promise to cut taxes and to continue investment in the NHS and education, without much detail of how, what and when. And the promise of a pension reform which seems to give with one hand and take away with the other.

And from Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe a half-baked promise of zero tolerance against drugs, without the support of the police to implement it.

Yesterday William Hague had the opportunity to make amends; to demonstrate to the electorate that his party is a credible alternative to Labour.

The opinion polls over the next few days will indicate whether he seized the opportunity.

But we suspect his deliberate attempt to steer clear of policy initiatives in preference of an onslaught on New Labour represented a missed opportunity.

While this Government may be beset by difficulties, it has thus far avoided the economic mismanagement which has been the downfall of previous Labour administrations. For all its recent troubles, for many voters Labour is the safe option.

The next General Election will be for Mr Hague to win rather than Mr Blair to lose.

On the evidence at Bournemouth this week, Mr Hague will have to work very hard indeed over the next few months to construct a team and policies capable of winning.