Tory fanfare for the Quiet Man

Iain Duncan Smith finally won over his troubled party yesterday as he proclaimed himself the quiet, but resolute, man of British politics.

The Tory leader made a virtue of his low-key, unflashy style as he promised the party faithful: 'The Conservatives are back.'

With a raft of new policies to take to the doorsteps, the Tories ended their week in far better shape than most thought possible.

The defining moment was when Mr Duncan Smith spoke with measured passion of what makes him tick as a man and a politician.

He described how he lost his job during the last recession: 'I had to start all over again.'

He recalled how he was told ten years ago - by John Major, though he didn't name him - that his parliamentary career was finished because of his rebellion over Maastricht: 'I did not waver.'

And in little more than a whisper, he went on: 'Those who do not know me yet will come to understand this.

'When I say a thing, I mean it. When I set myself a task, I do it. When I settle on a course, I stick to it. Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man.'

The response was electrifying as the Bournemouth conference exploded into prolonged applause. Mr Duncan Smith had established a genuine bond with a party still struggling to come to grips with two devastating defeats.

For the moment at least, the threat of a leadership challenge which clouded the start of the conference has receded.

The real test for Mr Duncan Smith is how the party he said is on 'the slow, hard road back to power' performs next May in the local, Scottish and Welsh elections.

He was determined to draw a line beneath the glories of the Thatcherite past which still dominate the party today.

A generation ago they had laid the foundations of current prosperity, he said - but warned that they now had to understand life in Britain today 'not the way it was lived 20 years ago'. 'Yes, it is right to be proud of the past but it is wrong to try and live in the past,' he said.

'This country has moved on and so must we.'

He delivered a slapdown to the Tory old guard - Lords Tebbit and Heseltine, Ken Clarke and Ann Widdecombe - who have been feuding on the conference margins.

'To those who want to re-fight the battles of the past, and to those who want to live in the past, I simply say this, "You stay in the past: we are moving on".'

He blasted Tony Blair for promising much and delivering little - though he conceded Britain now has a 'successful economy'.

And for the first time since he became leader just over a year ago, he was able to start setting out a clear set of alternative policies. On education, he said parents would gain real control over where their children are educated. Parents and other groups will be helped to establish a 'new generation of independent schools funded by the state'.

State scholarships will be offered, initially to inner-city children, so that parents can educate their children in schools 'paid for by the state but not run by the state'.

On health, he warned: 'You cannot deliver 21st century health care using a 1940s system,' and said that patients who wanted to go private because the NHS is not delivering will be given state help.

On crime, he highlighted plans to give persistent young offenders longer sentences involving intensive-rehabilitation. Mr Duncan Smith said the Tories would reward thrift with new lifetime savings accounts - 'the biggest boost to responsibility that we can give this country'.

He declared: 'We will give people the flexibility to save when they can, to draw on funds when they need to and to save again later in their lives - all without losing support from the taxpayer.'

And he was cheered as he declared 'the right to buy is back', with one million housing association tenants getting the chance to buy their homes in the same way as council tenants.

Mr Duncan Smith also highlighted the plight of the elderly who are forced to sell their homes to pay care-home costs, saying: 'We will find a way of enabling people to insure against the loss of their homes and savings if they have to go into care.'

On Monday, the Tory leader is to embark on a three-week nationwide tour to press home his party's new agenda for social reform and 'talk to real people away from Westminster'.

He sent party activists away with a spring in their step for the first time in five years as he declared: 'This week we have rediscovered the courage of our convictions. So go out there and tell the world - the Conservatives are back.'