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Labour's victory is already being seen as an endorsement of Blair's legacy, in spite of the fact that this government was elected by an abysmally small majority. Immediately after the election, a small number of Cabinet members were speaking more modestly and carefully to reflect a new humility but not for long. The hubris is back, the rule of intolerance and authoritarianism is back, the god of privatisation is back on his pedestal waiting to spread his power all over the nation. It is all done in the name of "the people", those who complained bitterly to the prime minister that their lives were being beaten down by an epidemic of hooded sweatshirts, immigrants, paedophiles, ethnic minorities, feral children and others outside the norm as they define it.


After an election fought by the two parties on the most shameful populism, we now reap the harvest of the promises made. We should worry that Michael Howard accused Blair of stealing the mean policies of his party. He has also said that his party will co-operate with New Labour to push these on to the statute books. How much should leaders pander to the often thoughtless demands and media-induced paranoia of vociferous sections of the population? Where does it end? What if "the people" command a return to capital punishment and corporal punishment in schools? Or a forced repatriation of immigrants? Unthinkable you say? But we are already sending back asylum seekers into dangerous situations and it would only take a slight adjustment of the will and ethics for millions to argue that the island is full up or that it is time to recapture the Britain they feel they lost to foreigners (like me), nothing to do with racism of course, only national interest.

If the main political parties intend only to serve "hardworking families", the most vulnerable sink - with some exceptions. At least there is still a real programme to improve the lives of deprived children, many of whom have fared well under New Labour. But too much of the programme is exclusionary and punitive for people outside the cosy network of the voters who count. A nation consists of good and bad citizens, failures and successes, hardworking and lazy folk, law abiding and criminal, men and women, indigenous Britons and people who have made their lives here, the rich and poor, the skilled, clever, successful and unskilled, slow and unsuccessful, the able and disabled, children, adults and older people and so on. In a good society, leaders find ways to respond to the needs of all these different people, to reduce bad behaviour and encourage co-operation and the rule of law. But today the main party politicians are focused on pleasing one section of society which is reprehensibly undemocratic.


The Queen's Speech has already outlined a number of proposals which emerge out of such a commitment. They want to cut the number of people on invalidity benefits - David Blunkett, ex-lover of a Tory publisher, is in charge of the incapacity benefit bill. Wait now for his rough talk about fraudsters, cheats and scroungers, exactly the same words he used for migrants and asylum seekers when he was at the Home Office. There is no promise to come down on rich people who get away with paying minimal taxes. ID cards, too, are a travesty, both because they stamp on basic freedoms and are an affront to social justice and civil liberties. The anti-terrorism measures are even worse. Packing the Lords with New Labourites is intended to reduce the influence of the second chamber which has in recent years been a robust champion of profoundly important human rights.

Which brings me to the profile of the MPs elected in this parliament. Egalitarians have long believed that getting more women, working class, black and Asian MPs would naturally bring in progressive politics. This may be the first election which proves wrong that assumption. The Liberal Democrats failed to bring in any black or Asian MPs - which is not acceptable - but they are not yet populist and Charles Kennedy has promised to fight for liberal values and justice. Conversely the Tories and Labour have got in new black and Asian MPs who bought into retrograde policies which means that their entry is nothing more than the achievement of personal ambitions to join the powerful.

We are in for difficult times. The only hope is that with a reduced majority, New Labour will be held in check by all those who do not want this country to become a land of winner takes all.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is an author and broadcaster