Blair clearly intends to stay and have his way with some very right wing legislation in education and health as well as criminal justice. While the underlying need for reform was clearly there in our institutions the ideological belief in privatisation to provide public services, for example, has led to unwelcome outcomes, not least the expense. Many firms, such as Capita, have done extremely well from New Labour, and we now know that some of these have either given or lent substantial sums to the Party. As many have commented Blair and New Labour have trodden ground that even the Thatcher Government would not dare set foot. Ideas put forward then which met with strong revulsion are now part and parcel of our institutions. That Blair has held such views from the beginning is also evident, but the following of so many New Labour M.P.s is less easily explained.

As for Capita, it now has its fingers in so many pies - as a quick search on the web shows - but it appears it cannot lose in any cicrumstance. Capita administered a student loan scheme which was considered a failure, yet the firm still earned £66 million from it. £100 million of public money went into the echeme.