At last the Tories have got an issue right

At first glance, there are scant similarities bet ween Benjamin Disraeli, the Conservative Prime Minister who dazzled the Victorians, and Iain Duncan Smith, a man whom his best friend would not describe as dizzying. Disraeli was a peacock personality, a fine writer, a piercing wit, a flamboyant phrase-maker, and a scintillating orator. None of those qualities spring to mind when contemplating the present leader of the Tory Party. Of Disraeli, it was said that he possessed "the soul of a chandelier". Of Captain Smith, it is more likely to be said that he has the character of a 40-watt bulb.

It is in one rather surprising respect that Mr Duncan Smith is beginning to exhibit a touch of Disraelian flair. Contrary to most expectations - including, I confess, my own - the Tory leader is demonstrating some talent for executing the nimble outflanking manoeuvre on the Government. His proposal for a 300-member, mainly elected Senate is both well argued and well timed to maximise New Labour's richly deserved embarrassment about its plans for a House of Hacks.

It has long been apparent that Tony Blair's never large enthusiasm for proper constitutional reform has been snuffed out by the possession of power. The Government's plan for an Upper House dominated by appointed apparatchiks was diced and sliced in the Parliamentary debates last week. Here was a New Labour open goal screaming for the Conservatives to score. Where William Hague failed to seize an obvious chance to shame Tony Blair, Iain Duncan Smith has taken the opportunity.

His proposals are not wholly original work. They draw heavily on ideas first put together by James Mackay, the former Lord Chancellor, and Andrew Tyrie, the Tory MP who has long been trying to persuade his party to take the democratic high road. Mr Duncan Smith gets credit for grasping the moment. He wants a slimmed-down second chamber, which is likely to appeal to a public which reckons there are too many politicians doing too little to justify their existence. He wants to give the Upper House the power to summon ministers, which is likely to be attractive to a public which believes that too many of its masters are subject to too little scrutiny by the spavined Commons.

Another merit is that he would not follow the Government into the absurdity of continuing to title members of the reformed house as Lords. Four-fifths of his Senators would be elected, making it a largely democratic chamber while still leaving room for the Upper House to contain distinguished voices from medicine, industry, the military, diplomacy and other areas of expertise. The single, non-renewable 15-year term he proposes for these senators, combined with the ban on standing for the Commons, would set them free from the shackles and goads of the party machines.

This seems a sensible way of encouraging the Upper House to be an independent invigilator of the executive and a restraint on the abuse of office. There are blanks in the plan. And there are details about which reformers will argue, especially the notion of basing membership on three senators per county, regardless of population. He has nevertheless produced a reform which is intellectually coherent and democratically defensible, neither of which can be said for Tony Blair's ambitions to fashion a Chamber of Cronies.

The Government's discomfiture can be measured by the bluster of its response. Mr Blair moans that a substantially elected second chamber would be a "recipe for gridlock". What he means is that it would undermine the elective dictatorship enjoyed by the Prime Minister. He might find it that little bit harder to always get his own untrammelled way.

Robin Cook puffs up his scorn to decry "hypocrisy of the highest order". Well yes, we can all smack our lips at the irony. After centuries of reactionary attachment to the indefensible notion of hereditary legislators, the Conservatives have finally struck out in favour of popular reform for reasons of low calculation as much as high principle. The even more richly flavoured humbug is coming from the Government. What must really eat Mr Cook is that Mr Duncan Smith has further exposed the extent to which Labour has abandoned its principles. The Tory plan is not terribly unlike what we were led to expect from New Labour until it got its hands on office.

What Mr Duncan Smith has done is good for the Conservatives because it places them on the democratic side of the argument. I am pretty confident that the majority of voters will be much more impressed by the Tory policy than the Labour alternative.

Indeed, most Labour supporters, and many - if not a majority - of Labour MPs will find the Conservative reform infinitely better than the proposal from their own Government. Were we able to administer a truth drug on Mr Cook, I reckon that he would admit to preferring the Duncan Smith plan to the undemocratic scheme the Leader of the House is supposed to be getting on to the statute book.

I rather suspect that Mr Cook is secretly pleased. He certainly should be. This further pressure on New Labour should assist him in his struggle within the Cabinet to improve upon the Government's quarter-baked scheme. If that happens, Mr Duncan Smith will not just have done some good for his party; he will have done some good for his country's democracy. That is not a negligible achievement for a novice Leader of the Opposition.

There are other signs that the Conservative Party is finally beginning to engage its brain. Oliver Letwin is adopting a more intelligent approach towards crime and civil liberties. John Bercow, erstwhile pit-bull biter of the Right, has some interesting things to say about the Tories becoming the enemies of discrimination against gays and the unmarried. By putting aside tax cuts as a priority, at least for the moment, Michael Howard is trying to put the Tories where most of the voters are on public services.

That does not mean that they are yet an entirely effective Opposition, never mind a plausible competitor for power. What can be said is this. At last, at long, long last, the Conservatives are beginning to get something right.

? , Andrew Rawnsley is chief political commentator of The Observer.