GIVEN the massive hype Labour's latest pre election push could hardly fail. Indeed one veteran commentator observed that Mr Tony Blair's 40 page policy document, The Road to the Manifesto, was a guaranteed success even before publication.
In a biting commentary in yesterday's Guardian, Mr Hugo Young cited "the illusion of its seminal importance" as a presentational triumph. The trick was to generate the excitement of something new without offering something that actually was.
It was ultimate proof of the difference between politics and art: "For the artist, originality is everything. For the politician, repetition, masquerading with media help as brilliant novelty, is the essence of his trade."
Mr Blair deployed novelty last week, seeking to escape the "tartan tax" charge with the promise of a referendum on Scottish and Welsh devolution. Yesterday was an occasion for repetition of previous "early pledges", hammered home with a collection of sound bites admittedly up to the usual high standard.
The choice was simple: "Same old Tories versus New Labour". Neither a policy compendium nor the last word, this laid the basis "for the new Britain we seek to build." It was "about people ... about their lives ... about the dreams shattered by the Tories . . . about their hopes and fears."
In the 1970s and 1980s, Labour had lost touch with its own basic beliefs. "So yes, there has been a revolution inside the Labour Party. We have rejected the worst of our past and rediscovered the best. And in rediscovering the best of our past, we have made ourselves fit to face the future, and fit to govern.
The best offers yesterday included:
. Cutting class sizes to 30 or less for five, six and seven year olds using money saved from the assisted places scheme.
. Fast track punishment for persistent young offenders by halving the time from arrest to sentencing.
. Cutting NHS waiting lists by treating an extra 100,000 patients as a first step by saving £100 million on red tape.
. Getting 250,000 under 25s off benefit and into work by way of the windfall tax on privatised utilities, and
. The imposition of tough rules for government spending and borrowing, ensuring low inflation, a strengthened economy and the lowest possible interest rates.
On television later, Mr Blair disputed the idea that Mr Major would soon be promising much the same sort of thing.
The Tory leader would not of course, be promising devolution. But that curiously did not feature as the sixth of New Labour's early pledges. Mr Blair explained it was in the long form document in the section dealing with Scotland and Wales.
Still the worries in Scotland persist about the wisdom and effect of separating the principle of devolution from the matter of tax varying powers. And the worry persisted yesterday about the extent of choice really on offer, to the British electorate or to members of the Labour Party.
Shadow ministers will now embark on a lengthy promotional exercise. Every home in the land will receive a credit card sized resume of the plan. If the party conference approves it, the entire party membership will be balloted, at estimated costs in the region of £1 million.
Obliging protest from the left will ensure continuing media devotion to the battle for the soul of Labour. But there is no doubt about the outcome. As Ms Diane Abbot put it earlier in the week, this side of the election what Mr Blair wants, Mr Blair gets.
Some on the left hope their reward for comparative silence now will be an outbreak of "radicalism" after the election. But sources close to him insist that with the Labour leader, "what you see is what you get."
What they heard from Mr Blair, Mr Gordon Brown and Mr Robin Cook yesterday were the familiar assurances, no overnight miracles, tough rules on spending, revenues to cover consumption, debt fixed and stable as a ratio of income, conspicuous ambiguity on the commitment to full employment and a curious silence about the Social Chapter.
Still, if the media presence at Millbank was anything to go by. Labour is deemed to have the election in the bag, and all these issues will eventually be put to the test.
The party's glitzy new press centre was packed to overflowing, prompting some to wonder how much less comfortable it will be when the election proper is actually under way. Journalists sat in the aisles as cameramen tapped their feet to the musical promise "Things can only get better."
On cue, Mr Blair arrived with the assurance to pre empt the sceptical in his audience. The Road proved, he affirmed, that New Labour had the policies and was not simply a "pale imitation of the Tories". Of course, there would be continuity as well as change. The essential point was that "in a changed world, we have moved beyond the old boundaries between left and right."
Under a Blair government, Britain will be able to hold its head high in the world, and be a place of which other countries take notice." State schools will be at least as good as private and the streets safer to walk.
Oh yes, and "consistent with the high quality services" people need, they "should be able to keep as much of the money" they have earned to spend as they wish. The wonder is it took the Conservatives until this week to conclude that Labour really has changed.