New Blair is in the making and we saw it begin to take shape in yesterday's speech. The solid economy was built for these - and that is where virtually all the spending has gone. The vision is a public sector that will deliver the goods people want most. Hearts and minds, he said yesterday, must be won for this cause. It was a fair opener, no gush, no sentimentality, better than those party conference confections, with a welcome clarity of message.
Elections sharpen images, define character and hone down party messages to bare essentials.
They may drive voters to distraction with the same things said over and again but elections do find out weakness fast, testing every policy to destruction, exposing weasel words. So if Blair really means to be more radical than heretofore, as he promised in yesterday's speech, then in the next four weeks his feet will be held over the hottest coals to see if he means it. Or if he clutches at the third way again. The best sign was his last-minute insistence on Friday that the London tube PPP be finally settled to the sufficient satisfaction of the only man in these negotiations who understands trains. At last Bob Kiley, the man from New York, has been given the powers he needs to run the contracts for the tube in the public not the private interest.