JOHN Major makes a bid today to switch education to the top of the election agenda, with a plan to create hundreds more grammar schools.

But a feud over Europe between Home Secretary Michael Howard and pro-European Chancellor Kenneth Clark means that the riskiest topic of the lot continues to haunt the Tory campaign.

For though the divide in the party is no secret, the prolonged stress on it presents the voters with choices that make the Tory drift towards Euro-scepticism an uncertain venture.

The electorate is far from gripped by Europe, but the issue's elevation to the top of the election agenda keeps two facts before the voters.

One is that the Tories are seriously split, which is hardly a vote-for-us recommendation.

Contrast this with the strategic silence of Labour's own Euro-sceptics who know that winning the election, rather than the debate over Europe, comes first.

The other is that, having been pushed towards Euro-scepticism - witness the non-punishment of rebel ministers, the promise to backbenchers of a free vote on the single currency and the poster depicting Tony Blair as a puppet on the German Chancellor's knee - the Conservative leadership now evidently hopes that the stance of firmness towards Europe will pull in votes.

But, all the time that Europe is kept at the top of the agenda by instances of internal Tory rows and rebellion, how sufficiently can firmness and disunity be reconciled in people's minds.

Will they vote for this mixture?

Therein, lies the risk for the Conservatives.

It is one that will be highlighted as long as Europe dominates the campaign.

And, after the opening rounds in which Tory sleaze monopolized the agenda for two whole weeks, the issue of the EU, equally perilous for the party, is about the only other one that has been before the voters.

Neither has been good for democracy - when elections should be decided on broad policies - but with just 10 days left, Mr Major would do well to bring other issues to the fore or dice with the risk that Europe presents both to his party and his own position as leader.

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