When Britain's Labour Government is handsomely re-elected today, as polls suggest it will be, the celebrations will extend as far as Wellington. Here, as there, Labour has been working assiduously to establish itself in power for more than one election. Here, even more than there, Labour's credibility as a party capable of government depends on its ability to endure this time.
But there the similarities cease. The Government that Britons are about to return is quite unlike traditional Labour. Its first action on coming to office in 1997 was to give the Bank of England quasi-independent control of monetary policy, much as the non-traditional fourth Labour Government gave the New Zealand Reserve Bank in 1989. The Blair Government's next significant step was devolution for Scotland and Wales.
When it set about its "third way" economic policy, it embraced private enterprise in public services such as education and health. Those are elements the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, never mentions when she invokes its example.
The Blair Government, like hers, has been running a tight ship, anxious to prove it is a responsible fiscal manager. The consequence, in Britain, has been declining confidence in threadbare state services and rising enrolments in private schools and in medical insurance plans. Mr Blair is enough of a Labourite to fear for the future of the welfare state, but broad-minded enough to invite private management of hospitals, prisons, schools, transport and urban regeneration.
The contrast here could hardly be more stark. Our Government has set its face firmly against further contracting of publicly funded health services, stopped bulk-funding and reimposed zoning of schools, concentrated housing subsidies on state tenants and is intent on restoring central control and public service monopolies of everything from broadcasting grants to tertiary education.
Labour here has copied the style if not much of the substance of Tony Blair. It used his credit card method of presenting promises at the last election and has no doubt noted the technique that has worked for him in this campaign. As the clear front-runner from the start, Mr Blair realised at the outset that complacency was his Government's greatest risk. He set out to show with his every move and utterance that he took nothing for granted and sought a second mandate with the same unassuming charm with which he won his first.
It is a measure of the success of his first term that his rivals have had to run "me too" campaigns on most issues. The Conservatives have been left to exploit antagonism to immigration and European integration, particularly currency union. But the tide is out for the Tories and its leading lights, Margaret Thatcher apart, have left William Hague to his fate.
New Labour, as Mr Blair calls his Government, has moved so far across the political spectrum that Westminster's third party, the Liberal Democrats, these days stands to Labour's left. It is the LDP, not Labour, that advocates higher tax, more public spending and state monopolies of public services. The LDP may attract sufficient Labour traditionalists to temper the triumph predicted for Mr Blair.
But he deserves a resounding victory. He has given Britain fresh and sensible leadership, maintaining the best of the Thatcher legacy and imbued it with a sense of social sensitivity. He has been a responsible voice in European and world affairs and an inspiration to those seeking modern, moderate policies for open, competitive economies. Voters willing, it will be good to see him back.
<i>Editorial:</i> Britain's election has echoes here
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