The Blair Revolution

Today, at the end of the long Tory night of 18 years, Blair, as the leader of the triumphant New Labour, epitomises the New-Right soul of the New Labour. As much as the devastated John Major symbolises the squandered spirit of conservatism. For the Labour landslide, coming as it does in the high noon of British economy, is an essay in the political viability of the idea thief. In a totally Thatcherised Britain, Blair presented himself as a trust-me man of tomorrow whereas Major, an emollient weakling, personified the grey stagnation of Thatcherism. It was a classic case of the leader of the vision thing8217; capturing the winning vital centre as the non-leader, a perpetual ditherer, ejected himself to the periphery of his own inheritance.

After all, in most of the two-party democracies, elections are won by the leader who understands the zeitgeist. Blairism is benevolent Thatcherism. Economically, Thatcherite Britain is irreversible. Blair8217;s Labour, a far cry from the utopian Clause IV party of 8220;common ownership8221;, has not only accepted the redundancy of welfare rhetoric but endorsed the virtues of free market and fiscal responsibility. From privatisation to the tyranny of trade unionism, Blairism never threatened the temples of Thatcherite radicalism. Rather, to the Lady8217;s 8220;no such thing as society8221;, Blair added a dash of the trendy sociology of communitarianism. While Blair was emerging as the chosen leader of nirvana, Major, whose election as the successor of Lady Thatcher was entirely accidental and based less on his leadership qualities, was slowly fading out. Civil war in the party over Europe; a thin parliamentary majority; sex and sleaze in the Tory backyard 8212; Major was presiding over a party at war with itself. Survival was the abiding leitmotif of his premiership. If the Lady treated the Conservative party as a party of permanent cultural revolution, her one-time protege reduced it to a feeble vehicle of continuity and stability. If the Lady was a warrior, Major was a gentle healer. In retrospect, his gentleness seems like the suicidal charm of a non-leader.

It was in such a scenario that the Thatcher-than-thou onslaught of the New Labour leader conquered the unguarded conservative plank from the Tories. The Labourite promises on 8220;enlightened self-interest8221; and constitutional reforms will of course test the winner8217;s trust-me credibility. But such fears should be misplaced considering the enormity of the mandate. For, the implosion of Torydom only heralded designer conservatism with a socialist price tag. Funny, on the eve of the third millennium, salvation8217;s most beguiling recipe comes from the radical who has so effortlessly moved from the left to the centre 8212; that too without the baggage of ideology but with the backpack of pilfered ideas.