Mr Tony Blair sought to re-energise the British Labour Party in his speech to the party's conference in Blackpool yesterday. He called for a bold commitment to deeper reform of domestic politics, made a fresh pledge to join the euro when the conditions are right and warned that a failure to insist on Iraqi compliance with arms inspections would destroy the United Nations.
Mr Blair remains a commanding party and national leader, despite more vocal criticisms that his reformist programme has failed to deliver on expectations. He returned to many of his favourite themes yesterday.
His call for bold reforms in health and education, using the Private Finance Initiative, flew in the face of an earlier conference resolution supporting a review of these schemes. Many public sector trade unions resent the role of private sector investment in the vast rebuilding programme of British schools and hospitals now under way, but Mr Blair insisted it is necessary to achieve traditional Labour objectives with modern social democratic means.
That distinction between ends and means is typical of his approach. So is his emphasis on a new realtionship between the citizen and the state intended to reduce dependency, stimulate individual initiative and thereby prepare the ground for a more prolonged period of Labour rule. He reminded his audience that Labour enjoyed a solid majority in the House of Commons for only nine years of the last century. He paid deserved tribute to Mr Gordon Brown's management of the British economy as laying the foundations for reforms in housing, welfare, health and education.
He was, as usual, more upbeat than Mr Brown about the prospects of Britain joining the euro once the economic tests set out by his government have been met.
Mr Blair has characteristically combined cautious action with visionary rhetoric on Britain's role in Europe. Those with a vital interest in seeing Britain join the euro, as Ireland has, still wait impatiently to see if he will decide to hold a referendum in this parliamentary term.
Public opinion has shifted in his direction, or at least softened its opposition in principle to joining the single currency. But he remains fearful that a mismanaged approach to such a momentous decision would undermine Labour's hegemony and restore the Conservatives' fortunes. Unless a referendum is held next year it is likely to be postponed until after the next election.
On Iraq, Mr Blair insisted that the credibility, even the survival, of the United Nations is at stake if the arms inspection crisis is not resolved soon. This conference certainly reflects the disquiet apparent in Britain about any Anglo-US attack on Iraq carried out without a UN mandate. It would rebound severely on Mr Blair's popularity if it went wrong.