David Cameron struggles for UK election breakthrough

David Cameron changed his election campaign tone on Sunday, outlining his "Conservative dream" of a strong economy and "excellent public services" in an attempt to engineer a breakthrough in the deadlocked contest.

The prime minister, speaking in Cheltenham, acknowledged that something was missing from his party's campaign when he said: "I want everyone to know not just that we've got a plan - but why."

He pointed out: "We're cutting taxes, reducing the deficit, investing in roads and railways, funding apprenticeships, backing the NHS, not to complete some national economic test or tick a box, but to build a better country.

"Where a strong economy means good jobs, worthwhile careers - and excellent public services, like hospitals and schools," he told his audience. "This is the Conservative dream."

Mr Cameron's need to underline this connection to voters, less than a month before the general election, reflects concerns that many are still failing to make the link between Tory economic competence and their daily lives.

As the election campaign enters its second week, the two main parties remain in deadlock, with Conservative attacks on Ed Miliband's leadership qualities and Labour's economic record failing to have much effect.

The Conservatives have responded with promises in an attempt to show a softer side. These include a freeze on rail fares and an additional £8bn a year for the NHS.

The prime minister has even relaunched - out of the blue - his moribund "Big Society" initiative by telling all large companies and the entire public sector to give staff three days of extra paid leave a year to do voluntary work.

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"It's dawning on them they are not going to win . . . so they are thrashing around. One day, it is a return to the Big Society, then it is an implausible commitment on NHS funding, and now they reel out a policy that only benefits a tiny number of families across the country."

The launch on Tuesday of the Conservative manifesto, reportedly rewritten in recent days to present a more optimistic tone, is a crucial moment for Mr Cameron as he looks for a breakthrough.

<>MPs in marginal seats are growing nervous that the much-awaited "crossover" in the opinion polls is failing to emerge.

"I need to see the polls shift decisively to have any hope of holding on," one MP in a Tory marginal told the Financial Times last week. "We need to be leading by three to four points. I have done everything I can; I need the national swing." However, with just over three weeks to go, Lord Ashcroft, Tory peer and pollster, observed this weekend there was little in either the Tory or Labour campaigns so far that reached beyond their respective bases.

The launch of the two parties' manifestos will be a test of whether either side can somehow connect with a wider group of voters and finally forge ahead.

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