Six years ago David Cameron promised to build a modern, compassionate Conservative Party. He made the NHS his No 1 priority, visited a Norwegian glacier, embraced gay marriage and replaced white males with ethnic minority and women candidates.  It is now clear that these changes didn't go far enough and, in some cases, were the wrong ones. YouGov finds that Mr Cameron is still fishing for support in a smaller pond than Ed Miliband. While 58 per cent say that they will consider voting Conservative, 70 per cent are open to supporting Labour. The Tories score 8 out of 10 for closeness to rich people and big business but only 3 for understanding families struggling to make ends meet.  In one of the biggest surveys of the British public, Lord ashcroft concluded that the "party of the rich" label is still the biggest barrier for the Conservatives' target voters. There's a north-south gap too. The Tories are doing less well in Northern England than when Margaret Thatcher was first elected.  These weaknesses have been swept under the Downing Street carpet since Mr Cameron lost the election but still became Prime Minister. The Tory brand problem has been hidden by the weakness of the opposition. Mr Miliband simply doesn't look prime ministerial. Nick Clegg has lost half of his voters. The Conservative leader has no internal rival. These facts look unlikely to change, but the Tories would be very vulnerable against a leader with Tony Blair-sized gifts.  Mr Cameron cannot be blamed for weaknesses that mean his party hasn't won an election outright for 20 years. Nonetheless, he is responsible for recent decisions that have begun to recontaminate the brand. Voters, for example, are most anxious about jobs and incomes but the coalition spends too much time talking about the deficit. The shambolic health reforms erased the lead on the NHS that he spent five painstaking years building.  His flagship project to define his compassionate conservatism, the Big Society, may be intellectually potent but has confused the public. Rather than arguing that poverty is beaten by strong families, good schools and work, the Government has often reinforced the left-wing idea that compassion is measured by how much taxpayers' money it spends.  The priority must be to go back to creating a modern compassionate Conservative Party. Compassion isn't When tax cuts become affordable, give them to low-income households just about helping the very poorest. It's about the working poor and rebooting social mobility. The party's "C2" and northern weaknesses are much more serious than declining support among women, although they exercise Team Cameron less. Ronald Reagan, John Howard, Stephen Harper and Margaret Thatcher would all testify that "the strivers" have been the backbone of every successful modern conservative majority.  When tax cuts become affordable, low income households should be at the front of the queue. Lower petrol duty and national insurance must come before a cut in the 50p tax rate. Before then the tax system needs rebalancing. Extra taxes on high-end properties should fund emergency tax relief for families hurt by inflation. Few things would send a more electric signal about changed Tory priorities than unearned wealth being taxed more and low-income households less.  The Tories must also be the party of competition and the little guy; not vested interests and big business; for customers who want more choice between banks and energy companies; for job-creating small businesses; for Tube passengers who can't get to work because a minority of union members can trigger a strike; for citizens who want a vote on Britain's membership of an EU built for the 1950s, not today.  Some in the Tory leadership have given the impression that right-wing policies made the party toxic. In reality, the greater problem has been rich people's policies. While these can overlap, they ar