He had the dogged look of a jogger mid-marathon: QUENTIN LETTS sees the Tory leader serve up feel-good fare

Windswept: The Prime Minister in Cheltenham 

To a dazzlingly sunny, gale-swept Cheltenham to hear David Cameron promise to lift that ghoulish tax – death duties. Arriving at a church hall to speak to a crowd of about 120, the Tory leader first had to get past the BBC’s Carole Walker.

TV newshound Walker was having trouble with the climatic conditions. Her hair was being blown about like wet, whiplashing spaghetti. Then she tried to powder her face. Pad pad pad on aquiline nose as she squinted at her vanity mirror. Whoosh! In that breeze, make-up powder was soon blowing around like sand in a Saharan calima.

Dear old Carole had no idea that behind her two bodyguards were being attacked by a mini-tornado of Max Factor as they awaited Mr Cameron’s bullet-proof Range Rover.

‘Morning, Prime Minister.’

‘Morning, sergeant. I say, what a peculiar colour you’ve turned ...’

For those who like aspiration and liberty sprinkled on their politics, the PM’s speech was heady stuff. This inheritance tax idea was the sort of feel-good fare the Tory campaign has lacked.

Mr Cameron even spoke about ‘the Conservative dream’ (of jobs, public services and security). He conceded that he and his team had said ‘long-term economic plan’ so often recently they were ‘thinking about it in our sleep’. Was he ribbing the Tories’ relentlessly core-message strategist, the Aussie tough guy ‘Bing’ Crosby?

Yet this was still a restricted event, held behind security for party devotees. Is it not time for Mr Cameron to discard jacket and tie and immerse himself in crowds of unvetted swing voters? Forty-five years ago an assured PM unexpectedly lost an election to an oddball Opposition leader. We’re still suffering the damage of the chaotic government that followed.

Mr Cameron yesterday appeared a little bruised. His pupils lodged at the top of his eyes, giving him the dogged look of a jogger mid-marathon. He spoke of the parental instinct to provide for our children ‘even after you’ve gone’. ‘That wish to pass something on is about the most basic, human and natural instinct there is,’ he said. He had wanted for ‘a long, long time’ to cut death duties. He did not spell out that Nick Clegg had stopped him.

Cheltenham, where many voters would benefit from a death-duties cut, is currently a Lib Dem seat with a 4,900 majority. The MP is a Lib Dem public schoolboy, name of Horwood, so below-the-radar he might not even be picked up by the town’s GCHQ listening centre.

David Cameron arrived to deliver his 'Conservative Dream' speech - and for those who like aspiration and liberty sprinkled on their politics, it was heady stuff

The Tories’ candidate is a beanpole lawyer, Alex Chalk, born in the town. Lib Dems (always dirty fighters) have been bad-mouthing him because he has worked in distant London. Horwood used to work in India!

Mr Chalk, whose chances may rest on the Green and Ukip votes, is promoting Cheltenham as a cyber-industrial centre. Viewed from an angle, he looks a little like David Miliband.

If he makes it to Westminster, Ed Mil’ will have this bloke opposite who resembles his brother. Banquo’s ghost! Mr Cameron made his death-duties pitch to ‘teachers and nurses and those running small businesses’. He said: ‘The home that you have saved for belongs to you and your family. These aren’t oligarchs. They are decent, hard-working people.’

Cameron conceded that he and his team had said ‘long-term economic plan’ so often recently they were ‘thinking about it in our sleep’

Yet this was still a restricted event, held behind security for party devotees. Is it not time for Mr Cameron to discard jacket and tie and immerse himself in crowds of unvetted swing voters?

He ended with a riff about aspiration – ‘your right to pass on your hard-earned nest egg tax-free to your children and grandchildren’.

As the PM chatted to activists afterwards – there was even, gasp, a spontaneous meeting with electors outside – he was urged by teacher Francesca Rutter, 45, to ‘speak up about being proud to be British’.

He assured her he would do so in the closing stages of the campaign. Ms Rutter, who wore a nose piercing (unusual in Tory circles) felt strongly about the damage done to youngsters by the benefits culture.

David Wilkinson, 67, an ex-GCHQ employee, disliked the Lib Dems for being so sympathetic to intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. ‘Treason is an archaic word but what else can you call it?’ said Mr Wilkinson.