Britain's general election on June 7 is shaping up as the most important political event the country has seen since Margaret Thatcher began to change the way the country worked two decades ago.
This may sound strange, given that there seems to be no doubt about the outcome, and that much of what the Labor Party now promises picks up where Thatcher left off. But that is exactly why a big new majority for Prime Minister Tony Blair and his party would mark such a watershed for Britain.
Unless all the opinions polls are hugely wrong, Labor will enjoy a Liberal Democratic Party-style dominance in Britain for years to come. The basis for this has been laid in the four years since the 1997 election; during this time, the most that Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown have had to worry about has been a few ministerial resignations, occasional demonstrations by truck drivers angry at fuel prices and nonpolitical crises like foot and mouth disease.