New Labour has been almost flagrantly opportunist in adapting to this pressure for lower taxes, but the scale of the the Conservative Party's second massive electoral defeat has forced it to reposition its ice cream stall on the two-party tourist beach.
The divisive two party skirmishing over the middle votes between those workers who think they are working class and those workers who think they are middle class, will continue, but now both parties will present a more complex story and accept to be judged not just on lower taxes but on how well health and education are delivered.
>By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent (Filed: 23/11/2001)
>
>IMPROVING public services must come before cutting taxes, Michael Howard,
>the shadow chancellor, said yesterday.
>
>The Tories still believed in the principle that low taxes encouraged
>prosperity, but the party's priority should be the "life and death" issue
>of improving services such as health.
>
>"Our most pressing problem in this country now is improving our public
>services. It has to take precedence over everything else," he said.
>
>At the last election William Hague made a promise to cut taxes by £8
>billion, one of the Tory Party's two most important campaign themes. The
>other was opposition to the euro.
>
>Mr Howard's comments at a news conference in Conservative Central Office
>suggest that Iain Duncan Smith, the new leader, does not want to campaign
>under the low-tax banner until the party has convinced voters that it can
>improve services like health and education.
>
>Andrew Smith, Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that, despite
>what the Tories claimed, they were committed to "deep cuts in public services".
This has also become possible for the Conservatives because of extensive interest in continental European insurance-based systems, which of course also favour the more privileged strata of working people.
Nevertheless a phase shift occurred yesterday in British politics. Hallelujah!
Chris Burford
London