Britain's Queen Elizabeth yesterday unveiled the Blair government's ambitious programme for economic stability, greater prosperity for all, and "the most fundamental reform" of Britain's public services for many years.
Amid the traditional pomp and splendour of a state opening, the Irish state coach carried the monarch to the Palace of Westminster bearing a queen's speech faithfully reflecting Labour's election pledge to put education, health, crime and welfare at the centre of the government's legislative programme.
"The pupil first, the patient first, the victim of crime first," promised the Prime Minister as the newly elected House of Commons then set to work. Putting the individual first, said Mr Blair, required "big investment and big reform" and that was what the election had been about.
"This election marked Britain's desire to move beyond Thatcherism," he declared. "The party opposite [the Conservatives] lost because they lost the arguments about the kind of country the British people want Britain to be."
The queen's speech signalled more than 20 Bills to come in the first session of the second Blair term - with the promise of greater rights for patients, more money for frontline hospital staff, proposals to tackle failing schools, more specialist schools and increased private-sector involvement in education. The Blair government is also set to legislate to increase the numbers of women in politics, and encourage more couples to adopt. A new independent complaints procedure will be a key feature of police reform, while powers are increased to enable police to deal with persistent offenders.
The government is going ahead with controversial proposals to abolish the "double jeopardy" rule barring suspects from being tried twice for the same crime - although only in the case of murder - where new evidence emerges. However there was confusion last night as to whether the new law would be retrospective to include such cases as the killing of Stephen Lawrence.
And it quickly became clear that much of the detail of key health and education reforms may not emerge until the autumn. Trade union leaders again warned against increased private sector involvement in the public services, and said this approach would not give the government "the delivery" it sought. And the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, echoed that concern while predicting that the absence of any commitment to free health care for the elderly "will come back to haunt this government".
Mr William Hague, meanwhile, told Mr Blair it was now "time to deliver" the improvements in services "put off for so long". Referring to Labour's landslide election win, Mr Hague said: "The government succeeded in persuading the British people to give them a second chance to deliver. The argument that they needed more time did work. But it will not work again."
The Conservative leader coupled this challenge with a warning that Northern Ireland could provide the first major test of Mr Blair's second term. In the queen's speech the government promised to continue its efforts to achieve the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement. There was no commitment yesterday to new legislation on policing, or to a Bill following through the review of the criminal justice system. Government sources said the absence of the latter was not significant and that other legislation could be introduced as the parliamentary timetable permitted.
Following Monday's Downing Street summit, moreover, it seems clear that Mr Blair is not prepared to make any concession to Sinn Fein on the vexed questions of policing or demilitarisation without a republican commitment on decommissioning sufficient to prevent Mr David Trimble's resignation as First Minister.
Mr Hague reaffirmed Tory support for the Belfast Agreement as the best means of providing "a stable, peaceful and secure future for Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom". However, he said the election results had shown confidence among mainstream unionists to be "in dangerously short supply".
Referring to the IRA's failure to decommission "a single gun or ounce of Semtex", Mr Hague said Mr Trimble and the Ulster Unionists had been "stretched as far as they can go and it is now up to others to deliver".
Unless that process began shortly, he said, "we would face another serious crisis and the government the first major test of its second term".