ON Friday British government ministers and those spin doctors who haven't managed - like their leader - an invitation to a Labour millionaire's mansion in Tuscany, will prepare to celebrate Labour's first 100 days in office.
A "dossier of things done" in this period set alongside the promises made to the electorate in the party's manifesto makes impressive reading: nonetheless, ministers must be wishing the defeat at the Uxbridge by-election had never happened. A few other matters, such as the suicide of Labour MP Gordon McMaster, are also highly regrettable, and spoil the virtual dream run of Mr Tony Blair's first 100 days in Downing Street.
Uxbridge gave Labour a shock it had not been expecting. "It will not make a jot of difference" to Labour's standing in Parliament, said the Labour candidate, Mr Andy Slaughter; but it is the first sign of a "snap at Blair's ankles".
Mr Blair seems unrecognisable even to his ministers after three months in power. One is quoted as saying: "Tony seems to have got physically bigger. The effect of power and moving about the world as a leader everyone is interested in has added a hell of a lot to his stature. Yes, he seems to have got bigger - I mean, physically - and he's acquired that aura."
With Labour's lead in the polls at 34 per cent and with the media and voters still prepared to sit back and enjoy the government's protracted honeymoon, the party has never enjoyed such freedom of manoeuvre. But since Uxbridge, the British press has been warning Mr Blair that if "Things Can Only Get Better" was the theme tune of Labour's election campaign he would do well to remember that "things can only get worse" should be the warning cry of the next two years. The honeymoon period cannot continue. Some observers believe it should not.
The warning signs are already in place. Mr Blair appeared somewhat shaken during Prime Minister's Questions recently by the row over Lord Simon, the Minister for Competitiveness in Europe, and his £2 million of shares in British Petroleum. It is an awkward situation, exploited to the full by the Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, who won hands down when he challenged the government across the despatch box.
Labour's difficulties during its first 100 days have not been confined to individual ministers. The government's roads programme has been criticised fiercely. The City believes the pound is soaring out of control. And while plans for a new mayor for London have been welcomed by Londoners, the implications of a Welsh Assembly and Scottish devolution have yet to be grasped.
New Labour, the Tories say, has set a cracking pace of reform to overcome the reservations of the Welsh and the Scots.
The Shadow Minister without Portfolio, Mr Alan Duncan, said last week Labour was "totally ill-equipped" to stand up to the scrutiny it faces in government. "They have discovered they cannot live by propaganda alone. Blair has been rumbled." He might have a point.
Another tough one for the government was the suicide last week of Mr Gordon McMaster, the MP for Paisley South. Mr Blair has ordered the chief whip, Mr Nick Brown, to carry out an inquiry into a whispering campaign that suggested the MP was gay and had Aids. Politics in Paisley is known to be vicious, and the problems for Labour do not end there.
The Doncaster Labour Party has been suspended following questions over council homes. Two other MPs, Mr Mohammed Sarwar and Mr Bob Wareing, have also been suspended pending investigations of vote-rigging and financial sleaze. So as Mr Blair enjoys his holiday in Tuscany this month, he may be wondering if the honeymoon has finally come to an end. Mr Hague is full of beans and the party conference season beckons.