After all, if we are ever going to create the political will and the democratic consensus to do something about the problems of the poor and the low-skilled, we may need to persuade everyone else that they have something to gain as well. Nobody worried much about vulnerable employees when they were all manual workers. Life-long learning and retraining could have been very useful for the manufacturing workers who lost their jobs in the Eighties. But adult education has only become sexy since professional workers realised that they could benefit from it too, as they switched between jobs and careers.Middle-class job insecurity could be a powerful force for change.

Let us hope that the new government can capitalise on it and tackle the worse insecurity felt by those at the very bottom of the jobs pile.. Imagine you have slept soundly for exactly a year, and today is December 30th, 1997 You have missed a lot. Much has happened, much has changed: you need bringing up to date. When you fell asleep, the ship of state was on the rocks with a mutinous crew.

Those shipwrecked mariners now sit glowering and confused upon the opposition benches, still in shock after 18 years of government, 50 seats short of power.
If you had any doubts about whether New Labour would actually do anything when they won the election, let me set your mind at rest. Tony Blair knew that after his great victory he had only a short time to grab the initiative before the intractability of government fell upon him.First came the promised Constitution Act, giving some independence to Scotland. The rest of us were bored rigid by this Celtic stuff: only 8 per cent of the population lives in Scotland, after all. One more earnest Dimbleby forum from Edinburgh on the West Lothian question, and the rest of us would gladly have expelled them from the union altogether.It made us English resentful. What was so special about the Scots? They feel oppressed by Westminster? Well, so do we all, especially Londoners, who live under its very shadow without any self-government.Blair acted quickly to involve the rest of us.

He added in reform of the Lords, abolishing hereditary peers and removing the appointment of life peers by politicians. They are now chosen by the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Arts, the medical Royal Colleges, the Sports Council and other august bodies of the great and good. There are no bishops nor any representatives of other religions, as the Bill also disestablished the Church.In truth, though, the arcane debate on the powers of the new second chamber threatened to be as boring as the Celts. So Tony Blair chose the moment to go for proportional representation for the Commons, ensuring we would never risk a Portillo, Howard or Redwood government in future.