After a highly controversial self-denying ordinance on public spending limits in its first two years, Labour has committed large amounts of both money and thought to these crucial central policy areas. Already, particularly in primary schools, there is real progress that people actually notice. Of course, more could have been done and more must still be done. Big questions also remain. Nevertheless, there is only one party that is fully serious about the most important issue in this election, and for that reason alone we want to see Labour back in office on Friday.
Labour deserves a second term for other positive reasons too.
The first-term record on redistribution is better than even the party is willing to admit. Amid the often maddening record of zigzags, false starts, phoney figures and populist philistinism, there is genuine achievement too towards eradicating child poverty, on devolution to Scotland, Wales and London, on the minimum wage, on Northern Ireland peace, on gay rights. There were many things that should not have been done - on asylum seekers, the contents of the Millennium Dome, the Ecclestone deal, jury trial, and prison numbers. But it is simply not serious to pretend that Labour has made no difference, let alone no difference worth defending from the possibility of a Hague government. The issue for many will be whether Labour has made as much difference as it should or could have done.