The British political establishment last week embarked on its four-yearly quest for the support of 44-million voters in the 2005 general election in a mood of barely concealed anxiety about what the campaign may hold.
Fresh from his ritual visit to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to notify the Queen that — as expected — polling day will be May 5, Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to Labour supporters to quell their doubts or disappointments and rally behind what he called ”our driving mission for a third term”.
Speaking in Downing Street, he said: ”It is a big choice, a fundamental choice and there is a lot at stake.”
He said the challenge was ”to build on the progress made, to accelerate the changes, to widen still further the opportunities available to the British people and above all else to take that hard-won economic stability, the investment in our public services, and entrench it”.
Blair’s main rivals, Conservative opposition leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, both charged Labour with letting people down since 1997, though the Tory leader was noticeably more negative in tone than his Lib-Dem counterpart.
Dismissing both ”the smirking politics of Blair and the woolly thinking of the Liberal Democrats”, Howard claimed that the prime minister was ”already secretly grinning about the prospect of his third victory”.
This may be a clear indication of the kind of subliminal underdog’s language Howard’s team is expected to deploy over the next 30 days. But after four polls last week showed their lead down to two to three points and Tory supporters more determined to turn out on May 5, Blair is fearful of apathy aend defections.
He underlined the anxiety in a personalised e-mail to supporters in which he said he would ”fight for every seat and every vote”.
The possibility of a dirty campaign was raised by Blair on Tuesday night as he addressed MPs and peers at the Westminster Parliament. Despite accusations from the opposition in recent weeks that Labour had been deploying negative tactics, Blair warned of a ”rather nasty right-wing campaign” by the Tories and told his troops to stress the Tory threat to spending — and the Lib-Dem plan for income tax.
Blair’s claim that ”our mission will be driven by values” will be underscored in the Labour manifesto, expected to be endorsed by the Cabinet and the party’s 66-strong National Executive Committee. It will emphasise the widening of choice in health and education even if it means a wider role for private-sector providers in public services.
That is sensitive territory for unions and the left. Government sources stress that choice does not mean breaching the principle of a British health service free to all patients.
The manifesto will also rule out selection in schools based on academic ability, while proposing more private- sector management of schools and an expanded number of city academies.
”The manifesto will be progressive in ends and radical in means. It will be more radical and more social democratic,” one Downing Street strategist said.
If Blair seeks to re-enthuse the core Labour vote, Howard needs to capitalise on public anxiety about crime, asylum and immigration — as well as future Labour ”stealth taxes” — if he is to slash Labour’s near-impregnable 161 majority, or even get his own 162 MPs above the 200 mark.
Outflanking Labour to the left on public spending and the Iraq war, Kennedy must woo Labour dissidents without frightening Tory moderates as he manoeuvres to build his 55-strong parliamentary party into an equal player in the ”three-party politics” he proclaims in every speech.
If turnout falls below the abysmal 59% in 2001 or Labour gets back on a sharply falling share of the vote, the authority of the government, and Britain’s democracy, may be damaged.
All three party leaders scattered across Britain to launch their campaigns, knowing that they would have to pause on the weekend for the papal funeral and the royal wedding.
Blair visited Labour’s tightest marginal, South Dorset, where Jim Knight has a 153-vote hold. Howard went to Birmingham and Manchester, Kennedy to Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Norwich.
With the police on high alert against the fear of terrorist attack, Blair’s security was tight. His rivals were on the road even before his armour-plated limousine drove from No 10 Downing Street to the palace at 11am on Wednesday.
Blair and Gordon Brown, his Minister of Finance and heir apparent, both sought to strike a positive note, stressing the benefits of economic stability, notably extra funds for public services and investment in better education. — Â