Following last night’s head to head between the two Conservative Party leadership contenders one can easily see that both men have their strong points, their unique attractions, their entitlements to even be in this race. The challenge for us observers is to map talents to circumstances in order to work out which of those talents will bring best results when brought to bear against this government over the next 3 or 4 years.

When all is said and done and we’ve debated each candidate’s policy hints, grand ideas, presentational similarities with Blair, previous recreational habits and so on the concern that most prominently features in my thinking is this:

At the next election New Labour’s main liability - Tony Blair - will be gone. Regardless of the state of the economy by then, Gordon Brown, who has a reputation of being a master of detail and a consummate politician will be fighting for his political inheritance in what will almost certainly be an uncertain world for Labour. Brown will be formidable and he may very well be erring on the desperate. Encounters between him and whoever leads the Conservative Party will, then, be bruising - if not brutal - ones. The stakes will be sky-high.

Whoever faces him will need to be foot-sure and able to not only attack the government for its deceits, its inefficiencies, the damage it is inflicting on our people and the lunacy of its ideological assumptions but will also have to be able to present a clearly and obviously different way forward to the British public. Whoever this person is he is going to be savagely attacked in the most uncompromising terms, will be subject to both personal vilification by the government and its agents in the media and will have his every policy idea derided at every opportunity.

Our Party’s leader will need to bring years of experience to bear in order to carry our message forward and will need the maturity borne of experience to survive all that will be thrown at him. He will need grit, determination but also a coolness under fire if he is to handle the slings and arrows, return a few and still be in command of his Party and, importantly, himself.

It is no criticism of David Cameron, nor is it to his shame, to conclude that he is not that man. The intangible extra, that additional ’something’ that enables a politician to shrug off the attacks and respond with something better, more apposite than that which he has just shrugged off and still have a smile on his face is something David Davis clearly has and David Cameron clearly doesn’t have yet.

Last night, David Davis explained, David Cameron pleaded. David Davis discussed, David Cameron implored. David Davis looked like he had it, David Cameron looked like he was still searching. And although both were evidently nervous at times, David Davis looked mostly relaxed and in control of himself. David Cameron at times started to edge towards over-emotion.

David Cameron is an excellent politician and has said a few things that I want to hear a conservative say. But more than anything else if I close my eyes and imagine the Conservative Party leader, in the House of Commons, standing amidst a cheering, baying, fractious and belligerent gathering of our representatives, giving it out, shrugging it off and scoring major points against some of the most experienced, skilled and ruthless politicians in this country then the leader I imagine is not going to be David Cameron. That leader will be David Davis who has the necessary pugnaciousness, cool, intelligence, policy and presence to deliver KO after KO against this government.

For the time being I believe David Cameron will be out of his depth. He is a class politician in the making; Davis is a class politician already made. If the Conservative Party intends to win the next election it cannot afford to wait and see if Cameron grows into the job. The risk that he actually might not - while small - is still too great. It needs to go with the man who has already grown and is already fit for the purpose. It needs to go with a man who can take the war to the government and a clear alternative to the electorate. That man is David Davis. If Conservatives want to return to power then David Davis is the man to vote for.