So much to do, so little time

摘要

"Reflect for a moment", Gordon Brown thundered at delegates to this week's Labour Party conference, "on the talent wasted...the great music never composed, the great art never created, the great science never invented, the great books never written." The chancellor's desire to nurture all of the potential of all of the people is a wonderful thing, no doubt. But Britain would settle for much less from its government-children taught, patients treated, a pensions system that works. Yet, such is the record of Tony Blair's government, and the whiff of fin de regime in the air in Brighton this week, that even this is in question and no amount of vaulting ambition could conceal it. In his own speech at Brighton, Mr Blair forsook the flourishes and blandishments that have characterised his rhetoric in the past. Step forward the "changemaker", eager at the start of his third term to get stuck into the nitty-gritty of reform. That was good politics-and welcome contrast to Mr Brown's verbal karate (see page 35). But it left hanging over Mr Blair one promise and two questions that will define the time remaining to him as prime minister.