David Cameron has spent too much time and effort polishing his public image and too little on creating a philosophical base, a senior Conservative said last night.

With the party feeling punch-drunk from a series of bad polls, the latest of which puts Labour nine points clear, the Tory leader has ordered an "aggressive" summer offensive against Gordon Brown, whose honeymoon bounce is higher than anyone expected.

However, the Tory front bencher told The Herald he doubted a "summer of nastiness" would work or impress the voters, who are looking for a credible alternative to Mr Brown's government.

The senior Conservative insisted, despite the "Brown bounce", which he said was to be expected, morale in Tory ranks was "not bad at all".

On Wednesday, Mr Cameron had his MPs banging the desks at a meeting of the 1922 Committee when he attacked the rebels and insisted he would not stray from the centre ground.

The Tory grandee said Mr Brown had been able to portray himself as a father of the nation figure but was confident this would change.

"We always knew Brown would get a bounce but the terrorist attacks and floods have helped him more than we anticipated but it's just one of those phases. Cameron will bounce back."

More concerning to him is that his leader has failed to establish a credo, explaining a fundamental philosophical outlook.

He told The Herald: "It's all very well having lots of policies every autumn. The problem is what do they all add up to?

"In the absence of any philosophical framework, they add up to zero.

"You have to convince the voters what you believe in. We've invested too much in promotion and too little in what we believe in."

This was the charge made against Mr Cameron in the recent Southall by-election when the Tories chose Tony Lit, a local entrepreneur, to be their candidate just days ahead of the contest.

The fact he had recently been pictured next to a beaming Tony Blair at a Labour fundraising event caused great embarrassment.

Another senior Tory said what his leader lacked was one or two old heads, who could help him think through key policies.

"We need an experienced mind to show David where the pitfalls are," he said, adding: "But, at the moment, we don't appear to have one."

Thus far, the policies, which Mr Cameron has sought to emphasise - tax breaks for marriage, a green airline tax, grammar schools - have all crumbled in the Conservative leader's hands.

This is not so much because the policies in themselves are unworkable but because they have not been thought through enough and so can easily be picked apart by the party's opponents.

The sight of David "two brains" Willetts getting himself twisted in mental contortions on the issue of grammar schools or Francis Maude admitting to not quite knowing what the party policy was on tax breaks and marriage - because the policy had not been bottomed - were pitiful pieces of television viewing.

These are stark warnings to Mr Cameron and his colleagues, who in the run-up to the autumn conference season will begin to see policy commissions report on their recommendations in a number of areas.

Much is being placed on these to turn Tory fortunes round but if past experience is anything to go by, then they could throw up more questions than answers.

Even on the presentation front, where Mr Cameron had shown a sure hand, his decision to visit Rwanda while his constituents were knee-deep in floodwater made him something of a laughing stock.

If all this were not bad enough, the Tories have also seen Mr Brown creep into Conservative territory and steal some of their popular clothes on the social agenda.

After one senior Labour MP disclosed to The Herald: "The Brown government will be a Presbyterian government," the new PM moved swiftly on super-casinos, on the reclassification of cannabis and, in England, on 24-hour drinking.

When Stanley Kalms, one of the Tories' biggest donors, called for "some rethinking" and when the Daily Telegraph, the home organ of the Conservative Party, said, as it did yesterday, the Conservatives were guilty of a "failure to oppose", then one knows all is not well in Tory world.

So are they afraid Mr Brown will take advantage of his bounce and their slump by going to the people this autumn?

The Tory front-bencher accepted it was possible but suggested the situation in Scotland might actually dissuade him. The argument is the Salmond bounce has put Labour on the back foot and the last thing a Scottish Prime Minister would want is to get a kicking in his own backyard.

"On the SNP's current showing, Labour would get stuffed in Scotland," said the senior Conservative. "Does Gordon want to see the SNP get 20 MPs in Scotland?"

Already, there has been a political cabinet at Chequers to discuss how the government can progress over the next few months and a snap General Election this autumn has been discussed.

This weekend, Mr Brown will again be setting the agenda with a visit to Camp David and his first face-to-face meeting with George W Bush. Expect Colgate-burnished smiles and talk of shared values.

While all the momentum appears to be against him at the moment, the one thing Mr Cameron should not do is panic.

Mr Brown's honeymoon will come to an end - eventually - events will see to that, but what his own troops, not to mention the voters, will expect of "Dave" is after all the promotional gimmicks - all the hoodie-hugging, all the husky-hugging, all the tree-hugging - must come the beef.