They fear it will not resonate with many voters the Tories need to win over, especially younger ones, and will rekindle memories of Mr Howard’s record as a minister, when he was seen as a hardline and unsympathetic figure.The concerns were heightened by a YouGov opinion poll yesterday showing the Tories neck and neck with Labour on 34 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats on 21 per cent. Tory modernisers are worried that Mr Howard appears to have reverted to a traditional Tory agenda instead of trying to broaden the party’s appeal as he did when he became leader in November.
They fear he risks repeating the mistakes of his predecessors, William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith, who were accused of “preaching to the converted” rather than wooing floating voters. Some senior Tories are questioning Michael Howard’s strategy after the party’s summer offensive against the Government failed to give it a much-needed boost in the opinion polls. He added: “But you are quite right to say that they believe that there should be choice, and people of course support the principle of choice where there would be options for voting in person, voting by post, possibly voting electronically.”. But [we must] also provide choice.”Mr Raynsford said the pilots showed that only a minority of people were dissatisfied with all-postal voting.

It criticised difficulties with logistics, the complexity of the voting system, and reports of abuse.Asked whether the all-postal vote in the North-east in November may be the last of its kind, Mr Raynsford said: “It may well be.”He told the BBC: “I would be entirely relaxed about a future which gave people the opportunity of voting by post, because clearly that has helped to increase turnout and participation – that must be a good thing. The referendum to create England’s first elected regional assembly could be the last to use all-postal ballots, Nick Raynsford, the Local Government minister, said yesterday.
He said the Government would follow the “broad thrust” of a report by the Electoral Commission, which left plans for all-postal voting in disarray by declaring that allegations of abuse had undermined public confidence.The Commission said that people should still be given the option of casting their vote at polling stations after unease at the performance of the postal ballots during June’s local and European elections. But none of this is properly “done”; it all seems rather perfunctory.There’s very little tension, which is odd, since in his adult crime novels Leonard is a master of tension Also, there’s no sense of danger here. The pace and streetwise style of this book may well appeal to young readers But I think they will feel shortchanged on the story..

Conscious that he’s writing for children, Leonard has taken his foot off the gas. Buddy’s tired of being a pet and wants to run with the pack up in the hills, while Antwan wouldn’t mind being fed twice a day for a change.Well, the plan is carried out. Antwan ingratiates himself with Buddy’s owners, moves into the house and passes as a domestic animal; later, Buddy has a brief excursion with the pack and covers himself in glory A sub-plot involves the kidnap of a cat named Lola. Buddy has a daring proposal: he and Antwan should trade places.