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William Hague pleased the Conservative party faithful in Bournemouth yesterday but failed to rise to the rhetoric of a Prime Minister in waiting.

In a speech designed to woo floating voters, reconnect former Tory voters and convince hard working families that Hague's remodelled Tory party was their natural home, the Tory leader combined an attack on Tony Blair with an insistence that the party was ready to govern.

Adopting a typically Blairite technique, the keynote 50-minute speech included an attempt to present Hague the man. Making much of his down-to-earth Yorkshire upbringing Mr Hague squarely aligned himself to the values and aspirations of the children he grew up with in South Yorshire.

He said: ''These people, the children I grew up with in South Yorkshire, want the same things as their parents did. They want security and stability for themselves and their families. They want a better life for their own children. The people I grew up with, and millions like them, are the mainstream of our country. They are the people who motivate me.''

Rallying the party to prepare for an election battle, Mr Hague dared the Prime Minister to name the day. He said: ''We're ready for the election whenever Tony Blair now dares to call it. We're ready for it next autumn, we're ready for it next May, we're ready for it now. Go on Tony, call it now.''

Mr Hague championed ''the common-sense instincts of the people of our country'', condemning the Government for betraying and forgetting the ''the real people of this country''.

Describing the constituency to which he was hoping to appeal, he said: ''And it is you, the people of this country, who do wait for hospital treatment, and do see crime on your street, and do pay for your tank of petrol, that I have in my mind as we fight the next election - It's you that I'm in it for.

For all the people who can't afford to pay more in tax to a Government that squanders their money - I'm in it for you.''

The Tories in the Bournemouth centre enjoyed Mr Hague's attack on Tony Blair and the Dome. Having ridiculed the Government's premature claims for the success of the Dome, Mr Hague said: ''For the real lesson is even more serious than the failure of the Dome. It is that the Prime Minister who now admits that Governments can't run visitor attractions still thinks that Governments know best how to interfere in every classroom, manage every hospital ward, regulate every business and spend everyone's money.''

''With the Dome it's taken nine months to see that these interfering busy bodies didn't know what they were doing. Don't give them five more years to prove that they don't know what they're doing with our schools and our hospitals and our police,'' he added.

Mr Hague staked out the blue credentials of a Tory government. To loud cheers he pledged to defend Section 28, abolish political correctness, maintain the union, protect the pound, and lower taxes.

And as he attempted to marry compassionate conservatism with the party's core beliefs he denied there was any contradiction between maintaining traditional Conservative issues and winning new Tory audiences.

He said: There is no contradiction. I say being tough on crime, believing in lower taxes and the robust defence of our nation's independence are not in contradiction with wanting better schools and hospitals and thriving inner cities; they are an essential part of achieving all those things.''

''I say defeating political correctness and refusing simply to accept every demand from every pressure group is not in contradiction with respecting the differences between individuals; on the contrary, the championing of mainstream values is the championing of tolerance, mutual respect and the rich diversity of our country.''

Mr Hague's speech triggered a flurry of rebuttals from Cabinet Ministers. While Margaret Beckett, the leader of the House of Commons, accused the Tory leader of deserting the centre ground of British politics, Education secretary, David Blunkett accused the Tory leader of lying.

He said: ''William Hague is telling blatant lies about his schools policies.

''His pledge to delegate #540 a pupil to schools is a con-trick which independent experts say simply doesn't add up.

''He ignores money which schools already have delegated and pretends that excluded children can be educated for free, school buses run without costs and special needs children educated without any cost either.''