"One hundred years in existence. Twenty-two in power. We have never won a full second term. That is our unfinished business". This is the kernel of Mr Blair's message to the Labour Party conference yesterday in Bournemouth. Everything he said was geared towards achieving the goal of winning the next election. It was a fine speech, touching on all the major issues at play in British politics and offering a vision for Britain's international role looking towards the twenty-first century. For that very reason it provides an opportunity to assess Labour's record half way through Mr Blair's first term in office.
Radicalism and equality are central to his rhetoric. Equality he counterposes to class war and homogeneity - not equal incomes but equal opportunities for diverse achievement - with the state playing a leading role in providing the educational, welfare and health services to underpin it. Radicalism he uses as a device to flay his Conservative opponents and the legacies they have left all around Britain's social and economic structures. His obsession with their role may strike observers as overstated and hardly necessary, given his commanding lead in the opinion polls and their undistinguished record in opposition under the leadership of Mr William Hague.
But Mr Blair is nothing if not a shrewd and ambitious politician. He is well able and well advised to anticipate the rigours of an election campaign in which such advantages could wither away. Certainly several disasters for the New Labour and several miracles of political recovery would have to intervene for the Conservatives if they were seriously to challenge Mr Blair's government at the next election. But current opinion polling and recent election results show decided weaknesses in his armour. They include the failure to deliver reforms in education and health policy which would indeed bolster equality. That in turn has contributed to a marked reluctance of core working-class Labour supporters to vote for the party in recent elections. Mr Blair is considered an attractive and effective leader but prone to arrogance and with a centralising instinct that can offend. His speech can be read as an attempt to address each of these criticisms. If it is followed through, it will be seen as an intelligent and timely recognition of their validity. That will require substantial extra resources which should become available from a relatively buoyant and well-managed economy.
Mr Blair reinforced the message he has been delivering on Britain's international role by firmly stating his belief that it should be leading in Europe - not leaving it, which he says is the logic of Conservative policies. He sees Britain as a bridge between Europe and the United States in the next century - a plausible if difficult role, but one that still faces major hurdles on the euro and security policy. Devolution strengthens the UK, he argues and his challenge to the Conservatives to restore bipartisan policy on Northern Ireland is well judged. All told, then, this was a creditable performance from a dynamic leader at the height of his powers, canny enough to admit so much remains to be done to consolidate Labour's political base and deliver on its commitments to reform.