A PLACE in history for Tony Blair was guaranteed after he led a jubilant Labour Party to a third successive term in Government. That much is indisputable.

He helped turn the cumbersome ocean liner that was 1980s Labour, laden down by negative associations with unions, high taxes, Militant and the 'winter of discontent', into a sleek, formidable fighting machine which trounced (and almost destroyed) a dispirited Tory Party in the 1990s.

He could sleep easy. His political legacy is assured. Unfortunately for him, his legacy as Prime Minister may not be so favourable.

Winston Churchill will be loved for defeating Hitler's Nazi Germany. Clement Attlee will be remembered approvingly for creating the NHS, still the envy of the world.

And, love her or loathe her, and many adore her, Margaret Thatcher's free market economics - increasing home ownership, nurturing entrepreneurialism and smashing the unions - irreversibly shaped Britain.

But Blair?

If he stepped down now, Blair's stint in No 10 would be remembered for leading the UK into an unpopular and damaging war in Iraq, and being obsessed with spinning the truth.

So it was all the more surprising that this week's Queen's Speech, which is almost certain to represent Blair's swansong, lacked anything which will allow him to forever stamp his footprint on Britain.

As one ex-minister told the Evening Press after Tuesday's showpiece Parliamentary occasion: "Where on earth are all the Big Ideas?"

On the surface, of course, a bumper package of 45 bills and five draft bills looks like Blair means business. He has branded the measures his "reform and respect" agenda.

He has produced an ambitious, controversial and wide-ranging package of planned legislation covering everything from national security to welfare and public service reform.

On the way it sweeps up new measures to introduce ID cards, scrap incapacity benefit, reform the Lords, ban smoking in public, bring more private capacity into health and education, outlaw the promotion of religious hatred and bolster transport.

He has promised to finally tackle the pensions crisis, to get to grips with a creaking welfare system beset by fraud, centring on Incapacity Benefit, and to once and for all sort out Britain's schools.

It is entirely possible we will get tinkering round the edges. For instance, Mr Blair has urged new Pensions Secretary David Blunkett to "think the unthinkable". He says he will.

Whether he actually will is another matter. Frank Field did, way back in the halcyon days of 1997. He was, for his troubles, sacked.

One striking thing about the Queen's Speech is its contradictory nature. It proposes opening up opportunities for private organisations to run their own schools. But then it reassures Local Education Authorities by promising there will be no weakening of their powers.

It says it is important to "generate a greater sense of mutual respect in society", with the PM insisting that parents must take greater responsibility for the behaviour of their children.

Yet in the next breath these same parents, so ineffective with their own kids, are promised greater control of classrooms.

It pledges to tackle the problem of "ambulance-chasing" solicitors, who encourage disgruntled patients to make often ludicrous cash claims against hospitals. But the NHS Redress Bill makes it easier for people to seek compensation if they are unhappy with their care.

How many of these Bills make it onto the statute book is anyone's guess. Blair's much-reduced majority means that once Labour's 'awkward squad' of backbench MPs smell blood, they could humiliate the PM by scuppering law after law.

He has left it eight years - politically, a lifetime - to start "listening and learning", to begin his big reforms.

Whether he has the drive and the powers of persuasion to see them through will determine whether his footnote in history is one of a Downing Street great.

Updated: 11:02 Friday, May 20, 2005