Because, in previous Labour cabinets, you had large numbers who sent their children to private schools, and in Tory cabinets, running the state education system, the vast bulk of them sent their children to private schools. Though I understood all the difficulties it caused, I just felt that it was a bit of an overreaction, was out of proportion.I asked him how well prepared for government Labour were.Better than we've ever been. It's been a hard process, an extremely hard process, because in these two years we've reconstructed the Labour Party's organisation, its membership has virtually doubled, its policy-making has changed - and will change further - trade union sponsorship has ended, our relationship to the unions themselves has been put on a more sensible footing, and the constituency party now has the majority votes at the party conference.We've put different dividing lines down between ourselves and the Government On Northern Ireland, we've been bi-partisan. In education, we're modernising the comprehensive system and not returning to the 11-plus.
In the health service, we want to get rid of the internal market of the Tories Crime - tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. On industry policy, we've put together a whole range of different policy positions.I think the key thing is, we've got a programme which I can actually deliver upon in government. You see, I remember going through the last two general elections, and there were all sorts of policies we had that the leadership collectively didn't want. I remember, during the last general election campaign, the pledges we had on child benefit. We all knew that by then the economic circumstances had changed and these were pledges that it really wasn't sensible to hold to, but the outcry of the party was going to be too great to change them. And yet that gave birth to the shadow budget, which gave birth to an election, which we fought around the issue of tax, in which the Tories were able to misconstrue and misrepresent our policies and persuade people that taxes were going to go up massively under Labour.Now we aren't going into the election with those difficulties.
The next task - and this is the final bit the manifesto puts in place - is to say that this has not just been about stripping away outdated ideology and transforming the Labour party. There's a serious programme of transformation for Britain: economic modernisation, the creation of a modern civic society, opportunity and responsibility going together, decentralising politics, improving Britain's standing in the world by altering our relationship with Europe. I can deliver this programme.Some people have said, fine, but what will actually change in Britain under Tony Blair? Will there be any noticeable difference three years into a Labour government?Well.. This is crazy stuff, really, when people look at it. It's true that we're not, as a party, proposing a revolution, but then the country is not asking for that.
But there is a substantial programme of reform without any shadow of a doubt at all - in economic and industrial fields, in the workplace, in the health service, in education, in constitutional change, and in our relationship with Europe. In all these areas, there is a lot of change being proposed and, if at the end of that five-year period of Labour government, we have made substantial progress in extending educational opportunities, put in place a proper reform - the foundation, at any rate, of the modernisation of the welfare state, a proper modern partnership between Government and business; substantial progress in our role in local government and altering our relationship with Europe...''Charging through what is becoming a familiar-sounding list, Blair then suddenly stopped and let the frustration of Opposition politics show through.The bane of your life in Opposition - it was an Israeli politician who said this, I forget which - the difference between Government and Opposition is that in Government you wake up every morning and say, what shall I do? And in Opposition you wake up every morning and say, what shall I say? And the problem is that it is never more interesting for people to cover what the Labour party is saying than what it will actually do. But they must have said something, because the Labour leader's message to shadow cabinet at 5pm is: That's enough gossip. Never mind who started it.At 6.30pm, Blair meets a group of back-bench Labour MPs, including Dennis Skinner, the foghorn of the left. Skinner, surprisingly, admires Blair, although he disagrees with him. The spokesman ignores the bait, thus avoiding potentially harmful headlines next day.
A sandwich in his office.From 2pm until 7.30pm, Blair holds continuous meetings in his office or the adjoining shadow cabinet room. The office is a bare, functional room which says, "I do not intend to be here long." Blair is always to be found on the sofa - just as he is in hotels when travelling around the country.4pm. Wednesday, shadow cabinet day and a meeting of the inner cabinet of Prescott, Brown and Shadow Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.So they do talk to each other; but did they discuss Prescott's attack on Brown's supposed ambition to head a "super Treasury"? Or Cook's dismissal, as just "one option", of Brown's plan to withdraw child benefit for 16- 18-year-olds in full-time education? Blair's spokesman is asked whether Blair had "knocked heads together". "Yes, a question from Peter Spencer, Sky News" - he turns to the journalist he's named, then announces, to laughter: "he's got a pink Mercedes, you know."11.10am. He returns to the Palace of Westminster to hear President Jacques Chirac address both Houses of Parliament.1pm. Brown judiciously calls Mandelson a "brilliant" election strategist.Just before 10am, Blair walks across Parliament Square to the Institute of Civil Engineers to talk through the news conference at which Labour's "New Deal" is being launched. Four shadow cabinet ministers are joining Blair in a show of unity.10.30am.
