Tories hollow claim to be heir to Blair...

Having spent the last 13 years rubbishing Tony Blair, the Tories are now attempting to claim that they are best placed to carry on his work to reform public services!

In a speech today to the Policy Exchange think tank, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said the Tories agree with Tony Blair on 'the essentials of the way forward'.

But he claimed that Gordon Brown - er, Blair's Chancellor for the past ten years - was not part of the 'growing consensus'.

This seems a dramatic - and chaotic - departure from Tory propaganda which up to now has Gordon Brown as one of the chief architects of changing the Labour Party into New Labour.

Bring on another pair of blue flip-flops..?

Well, maybe not. Osbourne's new thesis is built entirely on sand.

As the BBC points out in its report:

Mr Brown has said that personalised services are the next stage of improving public services, has backed academy schools and rejected any suggestion that he would lead the Labour Party off the political centre ground.

Osbourne even has the brass neck to try to steal Labour's mantra which sums up the past decade of delivery:for the many, not the few.

Osbourne may attempt to speak the Blair-Brown words and even applaud Labour's reform of schools and hospitals to offer more choice.

But they become hollow words when they are uttered by a party still committed to billions in tax-cuts for the few which would devastate public services for the many.