MANY are the times that William Hague's grindstone voice has reduced this grown man to a spot of spluttering. So how strange that the noblest sound early last Friday morning should have come out of the Tory leader's mouth.

Perhaps staying up all night at work had softened my brain, but there was William Hague making a resignation speech with great good grace. In this moment of sadness - his, not mine: I wasn't that tired - William Hague conducted himself with measured calm. He was a man gallantly admitting defeat and doing the right thing.

Sadly, he had spent the previous couple of years doing the Right Thing, pander-ing to his party's withered reactionary hardcore while forgetting the need to attract voters from outside that ring-fenced enclosure of little old England.

How typical of the way the British love an under-dog all this seems. Hague's departure, after leading his beloved party to a numbing defeat, stole the mood of the post-election morning. His sombre resignation captured the moment instead of Tony Blair's pre-booked landslide, a victory which was truly astonishing, though seemingly as fully arranged as a package holiday.

As this point, spare a thought for the victors. Tony Blair has done something remarkable, winning a second successive term of Government - an achievement which eluded all his Labour predecess-ors. Now he has two or three years to really show that he deserves our faith in him. Only we should perhaps go back on that 'our', as the legions of stay-away voters ensured a record low turn-out. Such are the oddities of our voting system that Tony Blair garnered fewer votes than Neil Kinnock did in 1992.

There might be many possible causes for voter apathy - the certainty that Labour would win, general disillusion with politics, a feeling that the individual vote changes nothing - but the result is the same. Despite the size of his victory, Tony Blair can't claim the will of the people.

Those of us who dislike the Tories through long and stubborn habit can still find pleasure in seeing Labour returned to have another go. So what we need now are fewer nerves, less spin, no more what-will-the-papers-say jitters, an end to the Torier than thou stuff, and a determined effort to improve education and the health service. And in ways you can touch with your fingers and not just glimpse through a blur of spinning statistics.

So Tony needs to get on with it, dealing also with crime, Europe, privatisation and transport. And the Tories need to follow their leader - once they've found one.

Who will get to hold the Tory tiller? Michael Portillo would probably be a steady hand, steering the Conservative dinghy away from the rocky past, a land still inhabited by Turtle Tebbit, a nasty, snapping beast. Maybe Ann Widdecombe will jump on board and rock the boat. Or possibly sink it.

Whatever, we should wish them luck. Looks like they are going to need it.

CHEERING news following my thoughts last week on jazz, fun and all that. David Porter, who promoted the Courtney Pine gig at York Theatre Royal, emails to say that his Creative Arts Promotion company is to stage a series of high-profile jazz gigs in York, starting in November.

Treats so far booked include American stars Scott Hamilton and Ray Bunch, Joshua Redman and Django Bates, and the South African Gospel Choir.

David used to promote vibrant jazz events at the ill-fated York Arts Centre and understands the struggles this city can present. In recent years, he has turned instead to Hull, where he is preparing for the ninth International Jazz Festival, and Leeds.

David says that "after almost a decade of hard times", York again looks an attractive proposition. Let's blow those trumpets.