As the government prepares for a May election it is confident of winning comfortably, both the Blair and Brown camps are united on one thing: the historic opportunity of a third term with a big majority must be used to "embed" policies that permanently change British society. At first sight, this ambition sits uncomfortably with a government characterised (at least in domestic affairs) by caution and dislike of ideological conflict. But Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are both frustrated men. New Labour, they believe, has not received enough credit for its achievements: successful stewardship of the economy; rebuilding broken public services; making headway in tackling the worst pockets of poverty; electoral hegemony. Yet they would also both reluctantly concede that in comparison with the post-war Attlee government that founded both the welfare state and the National Health Service, or the Thatcher government, whose microeconomic reforms restored Britain's prosperity and standing in the world, eight years of New Labour have not left much of a mark.
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