If Britain was an island in every way, Mr Blair might still be 20 points ahead in the opinion polls, but a trebling in the world price of oil pushed the acceptability of high petrol taxes over the limit with consequences we know. But that's politics - a succession of unwanted events whose buffets governments survive if they have clear values, solid goals and are rooted in strong coalitions. The heart of New Labour's problems is that it suffers deficiencies in all three. New Labour says the values in which it believes are economic efficiency and social justice. But neither are values in the sense that they provide a compass for coherent political action.
Economic efficiency is an economic virtue while social justice is a desirable condition.
Both beg the question of what values should create the policy which will deliver such a virtue and condition. In short, you could be a conservative, liberal or socialist and still believe in economic efficiency and social justice. Lacking values but wanting the virtue of economic efficiency, New Labour falls back on a conservative answer. Shareholder rights are sacrosanct and employee rights only legitimate to the extent that they are agreed by capitalists. It has an equal problem with social justice.