Straws in the wind

The Prime Minister seems to be running out of steam,

here in The Guardian:

"Tony Blair's drive to tackle antisocial behaviour is faltering, with plans for a "Respect" bill having to be shelved because of the lack of consensus across Whitehall over what it should contain.
The prime minister promised the Labour party conference this autumn that plans "for a radical extension of summary powers for the police and local authorities to tackle the wrongdoers" would be published by the end of the year.
But during a visit yesterday to Harlow, Essex, one of 60 antisocial behaviour trailblazer zones, Mr Blair confirmed that his Respect bill had been downgraded to a Home Office action plan to be published in the new year. "

and here, also in The Guardian:

"Two former Labour education secretaries, David Blunkett and Estelle Morris, are poised to put themselves in the frontline of opposition to Tony Blair's blueprint for "independent state" secondary schools, which threatens to split the party.
Lady Morris used an interview by the Guardian yesterday to flag up her opposition, warning that last month's education white paper is "at best a distraction, at worst a change of direction".

and here in The Telegraph:

"Ministers are to scale back plans for reform of the welfare system, including extra means-testing of people on long-term sickness benefit, because Tony Blair no longer has enough support among Labour MPs to force them through Parliament.
Despite his promise in September of "radical" reform to incapacity benefit, which 2.7 million people claim at an annual cost of £12 billion, Government sources say the changes will have to be limited and less controversial.
"To open up another front now would be mad," one said last night. Mr Blair was already at war with his party over education and health reforms and could not afford to risk further confrontation."

Not looking terribly good on the legacy front...