IT IS hard to imagine today’s shadow cabinet making a visit like that paid to Japan by Sir Tony Blair, then leader of the opposition, in 1996. The delegation giggled as a businessman declared, in imperfect English, that he was looking forward to their big election, recalled Alastair Campbell, an aide. The future prime minister was later seen in his bedroom wearing only a pair of underpants and an earthquake helmet, pretending to speak Japanese. Like a university rugby club, New Labour was brainy but boorish.

Nor would the party today offer up a speech like that which Sir Tony gave in Japan to the Keidanren, a business group. It contained the most important and consistent idea of New Labour: that the task of government was to equip Britons to compete in an age of globalisation. Protectionism was futile, Sir Tony said; the “creative age” would belong to the open, flexible and smart. That meant embracing foreign investment and the internet. Trade unions could forget about junking Margaret Thatcher’s labour laws. Schools and universities were the highest priority. A decade later he scoffed at those who wanted to press pause. “You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.”