Pink shirt, no tie, Michael Howard shaking the hands of adoring supporters, it can only be a bank holiday Conservative party press conference. The Tory leader is even introduced by TV soap Coronation Street's Ken Barlow (sorry, I've no idea what the actor's real name is). By the way, Michael Howard is in Manchester today. He starts by expressing "deep sympathy" for the British soldier killed in Iraq, "the 88th member of our armed forces to lose their life since the conflict began".
The Tory leader then goes onto to compare his message "about the future" with Tony Blair's message of "don't let the Tories in". "That's the limit of his positive vision," he adds. Rattling through his key pledges he then asks for questions. Queried whether he still thinks the Tories are two-nil down against Labour, he replies that he is "very very confident about the outcome".
