Labour's landslide

The surprise was that Labour, historically prone to stumbling, turned the tables so effectively on the likable but rattled Mr. Major. Mr. Blair's "New Labour" shed its doctrinaire image and depicted the Conservatives as the party of high taxes and dour ideology, and as the enemy of opportunity -- and did so effectively despite sustained growth and prosperity for much of Britain under the Conservatives.

Mr. Blair, at 43 the youngest British prime minister-elect since 1812, is in some respects very like another Oxford man in the White House. A fine debater, exuding energy and charm, the Scottish-born Laborite wore his hair long in the 1970s, married a high-voltage fellow lawyer, Cherie Booth, and moved so nimbly to the middle he earned the nickname "Tony Blur".

Victory won on such cautious terms has its price. If the economy eventually dips, it will probably be on Mr. Blair's watch. Having promised to reduce taxes and advanced so few concrete proposals, the Laborites can hardly claim a mandate for innovative government. By contrast, Britain's useful third party, the Liberal Democrats under Paddy Ashdown, proposed a one percent increase in taxes solely for education, the kind of investment Britain surely needs to remain competitive in a high-tech global economy.

Still, having surprised doubters with his surefootedness as a campaigner, Tony Blair may prove an effective leader in Downing Street. Within his party, he has shown impressive skill in building as well as expressing a fresh consensus. That is precisely the skill he needs if he is to restore hope and a cease-fire in Northern Ireland, realize greater self-rule in Scotland and Wales and, above all, redefine British purposes and interests within a uniting Europe moving towards a single currency.

-- The New York Times