David Cameron, leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party speaks on stage at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, England Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008. The annual conference runs until Wednesday.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
(AP)
Ahead in opinion polls, boosted by a run of special election victories over the governing Labour Party and newly in charge of London's City Hall, Britain's main opposition Conservatives have every reason to feel cocky.
But their leader David Cameron has reined in the celebratory mood at an annual rally in the central England city of Birmingham, insisting on a sober and cautious front as his party plots its course to Downing Street.
Stung by Prime Minister Gordon Brown's rebuke last week that the world's financial crisis means Britain can ill afford a novice at the helm, Cameron is preparing a statesmanlike address on Wednesday.
The 41-year-old opposition chief has secured his party's political revival with a program to mend Britain's social ills, but must now sketch out a solution to the global economic woes.
Cameron's party has traditionally been Britain's chief defender of business, but the leader warned bankers and traders they'll no longer be guaranteed his protection when the crisis passes.
"They paid themselves vast rewards when it was all going well, and the minute it went wrong, they came to us to bail them out," Cameron told delegates. "There will be a day of reckoning."
Cameron knows that financial jitters could help Brown — Treasury chief for a decade from 1997 — find his political feet after a year of missteps. Polls show Brown has cut Cameron's lead in the last week amid the banking turmoil — but the opposition leader is still ahead by more than 10 points, enough for a landslide election win.
Even before the current crisis, Cameron — Tory leader since December 2005 — was attempting to hone a more statesmanlike demeanor, turning his back on the photo shoots including a famous dog sled ride in the Arctic that marked his early months in the post.
Now he tours world capitals, turning up in Georgia at the height of the recent crisis for example, to burnish his credentials. He touts a well-crafted plan for smaller government, and perhaps even lower taxes.
