HERE is a confession. I am Michael Howard's secret weapon. This is a hidden arrangement, which is why the Tory leader never mentions it in public.

Although we have had our differences, there are similarities. Well, he's got a family and I've got one too. He doesn't have much hair and mine isn't what it was. Perhaps I'll get back to you on the others.

This is not an old-style Tory arrangement, so no money was exchanged in brown paper bags at motorway service stations (which is a shame, because you need someone to hand you a paper bag full of ten pound notes before you can afford to eat in those places).

Besides, that's all so old Tory. New Tory is Michael bringing his extended family on to the political podium at the weekend for a grin-fest.

Apparently, the idea was to "show people in Britain that Michael is just like them". Well, that's nice - and only the worst sort of mean-spirited pedant would point out that most people don't drag their families along to further their chances at work or in life.

But most people are not politicians - most people just vote for them, or perhaps decline to do so altogether.

This is where my shameful secret comes in. Michael and me have an understanding. He knows I won't vote for him whatever happens - pigs flying out of hell on a wall of high water, that sort of scenario. Some things are beyond imagination. Lots of perfectly nice people vote Tory, I am sure, alongside the ranks of the pop-eyed complainers and mouldy-dough patriots.

But even though I won't vote for Michael I could help him in accidental ways. In common with other more than mildly disillusioned Labour voters, I could assist by refusing to vote altogether. Or I could support the Lib Dems, which is a possibility, what with the party doing such a smooth, non-confrontational and never smug job of running York.

There are many reasons to feel disenchanted with New Labour, and one or two causes still to cheer. But I'll leave all that for another day.

What's interesting for now is the way in which the Tories have woken up. I say this not as a supporter, as should be clear by now, but as someone who believes politics is at its best when there is a proper scrap on the horizon.

Michael Howard is having the best time of any Tory leader since the one before last. That is not to say much, it is true, but he is getting under the Government's skin.

William Hague was good at all the confrontation, buzzing round Blair like a wasp, only one with a deeper voice than usual.

Howard knows the same tricks and he is proving to be adept at Blair-baiting.

The date of the General Election has yet to be officially announced. It's like seeing the suspense build up in a horror film. A cloud of birds flocks into the air, signifying the approach of someone or something. There are weird noises in the distance, menacing shadows in the woods. But nothing visible yet.

The most common assumption about this election, whenever it comes, is that New Labour cannot lose. That is a dangerous sort of superiority to have. The sifters of the political runes can look to 1970, when a seemingly secure Labour government blew it. Or they can glance back to 1987, when a rattled Mrs Thatcher won for a third time, even though the Labour opposition made all the running.

Behind all the fleet-footed headline grabbing, the Tory case still looks weak. Policies have been wheeled out like so many cleaned-up bicycles, then they have been whisked away again before anyone in the crowd notices the tyres are flat, half the spokes are missing and one of the pedals has fallen off.

At least the Tories are awake and causing trouble, which is more than they have done for years. And that has to be good for politics.

Updated: 09:01 Thursday, March 17, 2005