A winning formula for the next election

Parliament has broken up for the summer and soon Gordon Brown will shuffle off on holiday, fearful for his future. Only a year ago, clearly thrilled to have the job he so desperately coveted, he exuded confidence and it seemed the country was relieved to be free of Tony Blair.

Now a black electoral hole has opened up under New Labour as support for their right-wing neo-liberal agenda has plummeted to new depths. The Tories, speaking about Britain's broken society and promising social justice, are 20 per cent ahead in the polls and, to compound the sense of an inverted world, the Liberal Democrats are now advocating lowering the tax burden on the poor and middle class.

Beneath the feet of the party leaders, the tectonic plates of British politics have clearly shifted. The country now wants a new deal and a new economic and social settlement.

Against the slow background hum of a gathering financial crisis, the ordinary British citizen, taxed to the hilt, working all the hours God sends but still not making ends meet, has twigged that all is not as it should be.

They were promised, first by Thatcher then Blair and Brown, that through hard work and economic liberalisation, opportunity for all and general material advancement would be delivered. But in spite of working the longest hours in Europe, social mobility has fallen, inequality has increased and many households are now so heavily indebted that rampant inflation could push them over the edge. Indeed with housing facing a possible 30 per cent devaluation, the home-owner's most precious asset is their most vulnerable and potentially un-repayable debt.

Nobody believes in the trickle-down free-market fundamentalism espoused by Mrs Thatcher or her New Labour proxies anymore. Instead there is a yearning for financial stability and economic security.

The desire for economic social justice is coupled with revulsion at the benefits accruing to the super-rich and their