IT started with the European elections. An overly confident political party personified by its glib leader hardly bothered to campaign. Yet nobody was more astonished than the Tories at victory. More than just the matter of defeat it was the nature of it which will trouble Tony Blair.

Of course a participation factor of less than one in four, combined with the core Tory vote turning out, is scarcely evidence of a seismic shift. It was not as if all recent converts had returned to the Conservative fold or something.

Far more ominously, only months after declaring "we are all middle class now", a spectre returned to wreak revenge, albeit in a negative way. For after only two years of Blairism, Labour no longer has natural working class supporters to offend, not the activists to campaign enthusiastically in order to get a core vote it no longer has, out to vote.

To govern without principles is one thing, to govern without credibility is something entirely different.

M Naughton

Oldhams Estate

Bolton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.