BRUSSELS -- The historic second landslide election victory for the Labour Party has given Tony Blair an opportunity that no Labour prime minister has had before -- a second term of office. For the first time in history, a Labour government can build on its work and set in place radical reforms to realize its long-term ambitions. And the government is clearly determined to get cracking with its challenging legislative program, much of it controversial.
Blair knows that the electorate expects Labour to use its second term to deliver on its promises to improve public services and he knows it won't be easy. So reform of public services -- particularly health, education and crime -- is at the heart of the government's ambitions.
The past four years saw a Labour government with a tough approach to economic management. This has brought debt down and given Britain the lowest unemployment figures for decades, freeing up more money for public services. So the new Parliament will continue to steadily increase spending on schools, hospitals and law and order to create the first-class services that everyone wants to see. The billions of pounds of extra funding should, in time, deliver the badly-needed teachers, nurses and doctors.