LONDON -- So powerful has been Prime Minister Tony Blair's dominance of British politics that Thursday's General Election has resolved into one question: Are you for or against his leadership?

The main opposition party, the Conservatives led by Michael Howard, have discovered that the one issue that has salience is Blair himself. Despite the years of attempted renewal, their heap of policy documents might as well be in the recycle bin. Carefully worked out details on taxes, hospitals, the European Union prompt no spark in the electorate.

Target voters come to life on the matter of Blair . . . and "asylum seekers" -- any admission of foreigners to this country. This issue briefly, to leftwing alarm, seemed likely to lift the Tories into power on a silent surge of animosity to aliens. Yet even the racism that has been the bedrock of much Conservative support has failed to prove sufficiently dynamic to deflect attention from Blair.