New Labour’s mantra needs careful interpretation. “We are taking difficult decisions for the long term” - on the face of it this sounds fine. But, difficult, in New Labour speak means “we do not understand the issues” and long-term means “we won’t live to see the effects”.

So Mr Blair and New Labour are making decisions they don’t understand the implications of and with which they will not have to live. They are screwing generations to come because they are making the wrong decisions. This is only to be expected from a man and government that backed Bush’s illegal war in Iraq, lied about the logic and then tried very hard to hide the truth.