You need to wait and live a bit before branching out too

You need to wait and live a bit before branching out too far, so for the time being, I'm quite happy to stick to writing about what I know.". These are frustrating days for Britain's Conservative-supporting newspapers. As the Tory party struggles to look like an effective Opposition for a prolonged period, an exasperated Tory press seems anxious to fill the vacuum itself. The front-page attacks in the Daily Mail and The Sun before Christmas on the EU's plans for a rapid-reaction defence force were so strident that Tony Blair realised that his "Big Tent" strategy of appealing to all sections of society had its limits. He even claimed to Sir David Frost, on BBC TV on Sunday, that he now worries less about "the day-to-day wash of the newspapers", and whether people like him, and cares more about doing what is right We shall see.

These are frustrating days for Britain's Conservative-supporting newspapers. As the Tory party struggles to look like an effective Opposition for a prolonged period, an exasperated Tory press seems anxious to fill the vacuum itself. The front-page attacks in the Daily Mail and The Sun before Christmas on the EU's plans for a rapid-reaction defence force were so strident that Tony Blair realised that his "Big Tent" strategy of appealing to all sections of society had its limits. He even claimed to Sir David Frost, on BBC TV on Sunday, that he now worries less about "the day-to-day wash of the newspapers", and whether people like him, and cares more about doing what is right. We shall see. The Tory papers desperately want the fast-approaching general election to be close - for commercial as well as political reasons - and will do their best to make trouble for Labour.

But in their hearts, they know they are unlikely to dislodge Mr Blair, and may even fail to cut his majority significantly.No wonder, then, that the Tory press is losing patience with the Tories. As the Mail raged in an editorial: "The Tory Opposition is today a stumbling, incoherent shambles. The party once renowned as the world's most disciplined vote-winning machine is now little more than a pathetic shadow of its former self. Inexorably, it seems to be succumbing to a collective death wish that has profound implications for the health of our democracy."However, there is little doubt that the Mail and Telegraph will stick with the Tories; they have nowhere else to go. The Times, which urged people rather quirkily to vote for Eurosceptic candidates at the 1997 election, will be courted hard by both Labour and Tory leaders.The big prize among the "floating" papers is The Sun. The declaration for Labour in 1997 by the paper that told the last person to leave Britain to turn off the lights if Neil Kinnock became prime minister, symbolised Mr Blair's triumph.