What a difference a week makes.

No sooner does David Cameron reveal the true ext

ent of his Government's radicalism than Ed Miliband's 'new generation' is expose
d as the tired old re-run that it is.
While a shadow front bench sporting the likes of Alan Johnson, Caroline Flint, E
d Balls and - above all - Peter Hain can only churlishly lay claim to renewing t
he youth of the Labour party, the Conservatives have emerged from Conference sho
wcasing a renewed sense of revolutionary zeal.
And while it did not escape the press that Mr Cameron's speech contained no new
policies, the purpose of such a move may well have.
Six months into Government, Mr Cameron has shown himself to favour a more colleg
iate form of government than his immediate predecessors (and, indeed, Margaret T
hatcher) as well as a more efficient one - why announce ten meaningless initiati
ves when you can elaborate on solid policies?
And after a fluffy, vague and rather disappointing election campaign, he has fin
ally allowed his party to get back to doing what they do best - speaking plainly
on common sense.
At the top of this parapet, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has returned his party
to something it has not done since the days of Mrs Thatcher - speaking the mind
of the working man.
The Daily Mail headline Don't have children unless you can afford to pay for the
m will have chimed with millions of low-income workers tired of working for a wa
ge which is then taxed to a pittance in order to support the workshy, the lazy a
nd the irresponsible.
Commenting on working class swings to the Conservatives in 1964, Enoch Powell qu
ipped that "In the end, the Labour party could cease to represent labour. Strang
er historical ironies have happened than that."
As ever, the man's startling prophetic intellect was correct - no longer the par
ty of the thrifty and aspirant worker, Labour has transformed itself into a pres
sure group for State expansion, representing the two groups in society that have
an stake in it - the scroungers and the public sector.
It seems, too, that the left have very little defence against a Conservative par
ty in such populist mood, ceasing to make all intelligible sense and almost deli
berately sabotaging their every move - it happened with Neil Kinnock in the '80s
and it is happening again with Miliband.
A party with nothing to say has opposed the removal of child benefit for high ea
rners simply for the sake of it, while its leader demonstrates his very liberal
interpretation of the term 'a new generation' by making a 60-year-old Blairite e
x-minister with no economic experience Shadow Chancellor.
At the same time, the Government has announced a radical simplification of the b
enefit system, a stinging attack on 'no-win no-fee' health and safety litigation
, a cap of £500 a week for families on welfare and the removal of teachers' 'no-tou
ch' rule in schools.
Mr Cameron has finally articulated the vagaries of the last five years into hard
, popular and common sense policies at a time when Labour seems determined to se
lf-destruct. If he keeps his resolve, his party could well the next election out
right and keep Labour out of office for a long time to come.