Only last week one of his front-bench colleagues Mrs Angela Browning was denouncing an extension to maternity

Only last week one of his front-bench colleagues, Mrs Angela Browning, was denouncing an extension to maternity leave as a "burden on business".Mr Tony Blair is ambivalent. His government has introduced the minimum wage and accepted the European social chapter. If he sucks up to business, as he does, business undoubtedly sucks up to him. The display round the hall at the last Labour conference was a veritable Father Christmas's grotto dedicated to late 20th century capitalism. But all this is froth, as are lunches, conferences and people being photographed on platforms.

What matters is what the Government does, whether through legislation or by other means. Here the present administration's policy is to divest itself of public assets whenever possible. If a new enterprise is to be set up, it is to be by means of private finance - as, apart from a lottery grant, was the new, unusable Wembley Stadium. I could have told them that at the time.A few years ago, when Labour were in opposition, I met Mr Andrew Smith at some function or other."You'll never have heard of me," he said.

I confessed that, sadly, such was the case."I'm generally considered to be rather boring," he went on.This was a novel social difficulty. I said that he had clearly mistaken public opinion on this point or that public opinion was itself mistaken in its estimation of Mr Smith. Or something very much like that.Shortly afterwards I heard him speak at a party conference. It was on the subject of Air Traffic Control, and the Major government's proposal to sell the service off to private enterprise Mr Smith was not boring at all.

Quite the reverse: he made the most impassioned speech I had heard for a long time in favour of public ownership, accountability and control. Today Mr Smith is Chief Secretary to the Treasury and an enthusiast for the selling off of the ATC service, or part of it, to the private sector.The enthusiasm displayed by Mr John Prescott is even more surprising Mr Prescott did not come to his post a virgin. In opposition he spent a good deal of time thinking about the subject. His broad conclusion was that, though most undertakings should be retained in the public sector, necessary finance should be raised in the market. And yet this is the opposite of the policy he is pursuing in government. Finance for the London Underground should, he says, be raised not by the issue of bonds (a bond being a guaranteed loan paying a dividend) but by making over of part of the enterprise to a private company.This was intended to be Railtrack.