Mr Tony Blair is on his way to Downing Street following a truly decisive endorsement of the Labour Party in yesterday's UK general election. That the prolonged election campaign has yielded such a spectacular majority and convincing mandate for government is welcome news in Ireland, among Britain's European Union partners and throughout the international community. Although Mr Blair and his senior ministers to be are inexperienced in government they are well tested politically, having shown real leadership in modernising their party and having run what has proved to be a highly successful campaign. They will enjoy a period of goodwill emboldened by a palpable mood for change and renewal among the British electorate.
Labour's majority may clearly be compared with some of the greatest swings of electoral fortune ever seen in Britain, whether in 1832, 1906 or 1945. The result leaves the Conservatives in huge disarray, defeated and unsure where to turn for leadership and political direction. The Liberal Democrats have performed spectacularly well against the electoral system's obstacles, putting them in a strong position to influence the Labour government. In Scotland and Wales, the nationalist parties have also polled well, prefiguring what will be a central element of the new government's agenda its plans for devolved assemblies. Irrespective of the results of today's counts in Northern Ireland, none of the parties there will enjoy the balance of power that enabled unionists to influence Mr Major's outgoing government.
Mr Blair is in a powerful position to implement his party's programme of reforms and is very confident of being able to do so. What will it do with its extraordinary victory? There is a paradox here, in that the size of the majority and scale of the victory contrasts sharply with the apparent timidity and lack of ambition of Lab our's programme. It is constrained by the commitment to stay within the fiscal parameters laid down by the Conservatives. On health and education - central to Lab our's platform of narrowing social divisions there is a greater emphasis on reorganisation and new priorities, than on the immediate allocation of extra resources. The pledge to bring back 250,000 young people into employment, funded by a windfall tax on privatised utility companies, is admirable, but also financially modest. Reorganisation of Britain's constitutional arrangements and identity and the pressing need to redefine Britain's position in Europe - made much easier by this result will take up a great deal of the new government's energy and set the framework for the second term that has been a central element in New Labour's planning for power.
Mr Blair has repeatedly insisted on the need for realistic expectations, both to attract Conservative swing voters and to lay a foundation of readily achievable goals which will restore the credibility of Labour's reformist politics. Implicit in this project is an enlarging radicalism from the centre ground of British politics over a prolonged period. The political dynamics arising from this dramatic result will create their own momentum for change as British politics realign and popular expectations are raised. They will pose a real challenge of political management for Mr Blair and his team. The coherence of their policy across the span of its concerns will be a crucial factor if he is to gain the second term he says is required to make Britain a better society.
New Labour has an historic opportunity to fulfil its promises. It will only have itself to blame if it fails to deliver on the basis of this outstanding result.