And we put in place piece by piece the building blocks of that over time, and that we take people with us and we develop an understanding of the direction and purpose that we've got for our country, and we make no secret of the fact that some of these things take time to work."If this sounds uncomfortably like Peter Sellers' satire of the simple gardener who becomes a presidential candidate - "We must build, but we must build surely" - then wait, the preparations for office are not finished yet.Blair would, I think, be an effective prime minister. What I do say to people is that we need to rebuild this country, economically, socially, democratically. Blair is not promising much, but the few policies which remain are beginning to look as if they are ready to be turned into legislation.But what is the plan for government? "I make no apologies, as I have done within my own party, for saying to people that an incoming Labour government is not going to revolutionise society overnight, or [have] some grand programme, in the first hundred days, [where] you do these 30 or 40 things," he said earlier this year in a radio interview with John Humphrys "I think that type of politics usually does end in tears. So off to Templeton College, Oxford, go batches of the Shadow Cabinet, to be lectured about red boxes by retired civil servants, and taught the science of "managing change in large organisations" by business school gurus.And there is a sense of earnest about preparations for government which was curiously lacking before the 1992 election, even though nearly everyone thought Labour would at least form a minority administration. He is all too aware of the lessons of Bill Clinton, who ran a brilliant campaign and then brought in a different team to make a mess of government. He is all too aware that his government would be the first this century to contain no one with Cabinet experience (even in 1924, Arthur Henderson had served in the wartime coalition).

But when you stop, they all get out and argue about which way to go." So expect no concessions to Labour's passengers who are beginning to feel car sick. Complaints about fresh-faced spin doctors and policy wonks who think Ramsay MacDonald is a hamburger chain miss the point. The charmingly thuggish Alastair Campbell and his fierce assistants are not freelancing, they are doing what Blair wants, enforcing the "unitary command structure leading directly to the leader", as outlined in the embarrassingly candid strategy document leaked two months ago. There will be no let-up between now and the election.But when I said Blair was ambitious, I meant ambitious He is not just interested in the next election More of his attention now, is focused on the one after that.

"If you drive at great speed, all the people in it are either exhilarated or so sick that you have not problems. Most Labour politicians say the same thing, but only Blair can claim really to mean it. The endorsement of Labour as the "One Nation" party, first by Lord (Ian) Gilmour, a wet Cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher, and now by Alan Howarth, the first MP to defect from Tory to Labour, would have been inconceivable under any other leader.Harold Wilson famously compared the Labour Party to a vehicle. And that was just the first nine months, while he was also fighting the battle to rewrite Clause IV. Every single change moved Labour closer to the Conservatives But the Labour Party cannot say it was not warned. It elected him because he was the one who frightened the Tories. He has always made clear his aim is to win the centre ground of British politics.