An opportunity for Mr Cameron – from Prince Hal to Henry V

It is fascinating to realise just how clever Gordon Brown has been in recent weeks. Whilst he himself has been in virtual pre-Prime Minister purdah (until yesterday), his team has ensured that positive characteristics about the ex-Chancellor have become part of the political lexicon. "Conviction", "not to be underestimated, "tough" and "resolute" are all words that have been used to describe Mr Brown in numerous articles and speeches. In his acceptance speech yesterday, Mr Brown played on these "attributes" bringing them all together in a measured and polished performance.

Meanwhile, the Tories seem to have been sleepwalking into Gordon Brown's Prime Ministership. Over the past few weeks, the Conservative high command should have been resolutely focusing on Brown "negatives": his control freakery, authoritarianism, mismanagement and "psychological flaws".

The electorate should have been reminded in no uncertain terms of the damage to the pensions industry, the increase in regulation, the manipulation of statistics and ever higher stealth taxes. There should have been a newspaper advertising campaign, constituency actions days and hard hitting leaflets produced to remind people about Mr Brown and what he has done over the past ten years. Instead Mr Cameron has mainly been fire fighting, dealing with debacles like grammar schools and the u-turn on charging for museums. What an opportunity lost.

Nevertheless, the next few weeks could represent a real opportunity for Mr Cameron. The critique that the Labour Party are developing is that Mr Cameron is all "fluff and no substance". Mr Cameron has a chance to prove this critique wrong. The next few weeks are likely to be intensely difficult for the Conservatives with the "Brown bounce" hitting the Conservative opinion poll lead. If Mr Cameron can show courage under fire, keep his party on the straight and narrow - particularly the Parliamentary Party - and demonstrate real resilience against the Brown assault, then it could just be that he too will be regarded as having passed an important milestone in his leadership. Mr Brown's ascent could actually be the making of the Tory Leader - his transformation from Prince Hal to Henry V.

To read more by Watlington, see Watlington.