Stop the plotting, Mr Cameron, and rediscover your will to win But what is Labour's message? It does not seem to have one. Now that the economy is showing strong signs of recovery, Labour's central charge - that the country is flat-lining as a result of Coalition cuts - has lost the threadbare vestiges of validity on which the party was relying to win it the next election. Ukip also has its problems, with the burned-out Mr Farage stepping back from day-to-day combat to try to bring some order to his party's rackety organisation. This will be as straightforward as herding cats. In such circumstances, the current fashionable Tory mood of moderate optimism is partly understandable. Says one MP, passing through London in August: "There comes a point where people get sick of being negative. I think colleagues are moaned out. I suspect this verdict will prove to be somewhat misplaced, and that the Tory parliamentary party is never completely "moaned out." Indeed, another MP responded that he thought the Cameroons are in danger of getting cocky, which is usually when they get complacent and make mistakes. The critics of Mr Cameron do have a point, though. For all that the Tory outlook seems to have improved, and Mr Miliband is struggling, the odds are still stacked heavily against the Conservatives. The electoral topography remains daunting. The constituency boundaries favour Labour, and a good chunk of the Lib Dem vote went "home" to Labour when Nick Clegg clambered into bed with Mr Cameron. Labour starts not where it finished the morning after the 2010 general election; it is higher than that, with a core vote that has been rebuilt, taking it up close to the mid-30s. Against that, Mr Cameron, needing every vote he can get if he wants his first overall majority, and requiring to get above the 36 per cent he scored against Gordon Brown in what were propitious circumstances, also has to deal with the threat from Ukip. This seems to have been widely misunderstood. It is quite possible that the party will slip back when it comes under pressure, but to do serious harm to the Conservatives, Ukip still only needs to poll 6 or 7 per cent of the vote, denying the Tories seats. In these trying circumstances, the response of Mr Cameron's team has been depressingly predictable. They have already started to plan for a second coalition with the Liberal Democrats after the next election. Earlier this week, The Daily Telegraph revealed that plans are being drawn up which will mean Tory MPs voting on any new coalition deal, so that they have "dipped their hands" in blood and cannot snipe later. This plotting by the Tory leadership is a terrible mistake, and another classic example of the worst aspects of Cameroonism, which sometimes involves seeing problems through the wrong end of the telescope. Rather than drawing up plans now for what happens when they fail to win an overall majority, the emphasis should be relentlessly on developing bold policies that emphasise a sense of ambitious vision for the country. It is precisely because the electoral task is so daunting that Mr Cameron should be aiming high. The only thing that stands any chance of cutting through widespread public apathy and hatred of politics is a positive message of national renewal and strong leadership. Grubby game-playing about future deals with the Lib Dems is just not going to do it. Instead, if Mr Cameron wants to build on the decent foundations he has laid down in recent months, he should banish talk of preparing for another hung parliament. He should be digging deep, and rediscovering the sense of mission to win that he had before the last election, when he talked convincingly in terms of mending the broken society. Social concern and economic reform, melded with a modestly stated message of recovery, could do it for him and his party. But they will certainly not win if they begin by presuming they will fall short, again.