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The Independent invited ministers to describe their first 100 days in office. David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, and George Robertson, the Secretary of State for Defence, were the only two ministers to respond. Since the election, we have made enormous strides in implementation of both education and employment policy.
I will limit myself to highlighting four key areas where we have already made significant progress.First, standards in schools.In July, we published the Government’s first White Paper, Excellence in Schools. It sets out plans for the most fundamental overhaul of education since 1944. “Tony Blair is trying to get into the youth culture but most of the time he just misses.”Mr Blair and his ministers doseem to be making a real effort to address the major needs of young people in education, unemployment, and housing.Diana McMahon, of the Prince’s Trust, said: “Even before the election, senior Labour figures were holding discussion forums with youth organisations: they really want to take advantage of our grass- roots knowledge of the current problems in society.”The result has been a number of innovative, though as yet unproven, changes in policy aimed at improving the situation facing today’s youth.In education, David Blunkett’s White Paper on Excellence in Schools seeks to improve teaching standards in schools.Next January the Government, in conjunction with youth-training organisations such as the Prince’s Trust, is to introduce its “New Deal”, a programme aimed at young people who have been out of work for six months or more, or who have never held a permanent job.The housing charity Shelter is delighted that Mr Blair has honoured his election pledge to release the Capital Receipts from the Tories’ Right- to-Buy housing scheme; it will mean an extra pounds 135m over two years for local authorities to use in housing-related projects.A spokesman for Shelter, which provides support for the young homeless, said: “It is no longer a situation of them against us, but them and us.”The Government has, however, been criticised by those who claim that Labour is simply undoing some of the damage inflicted by the Tory cuts, without really tackling the fundamental issues.Gabriella Civico, chair of the British Youth Council, believes that “without such moves as major job creation and new affordable housing, anything that Labour does will simply be cosmetic”.More seriously, some issues are already causing dissent between the Government and youth organisations.While the National Union of Students acknowledges that Labour did not initiate the Dearing Review and have, in fact, moderated much of its conclusions, it is bitterly protesting against the proposed introduction of tuition fees.Good intentions win street credStewart Fallconer, 17, bank clerk: “He is passing a lot of new laws, but he will calm down very soon.”Christophe Desmoulin, French photographer, 26: “He seems to be less of a technocrat than John Major, and a more humane person too.”Julian May, 23, teacher: “He seems false sometimes because he is smiling all the time But he has good intentions.

He sends out the right signals.”Yet some young people think he is trying a little too hard to be all things to all people.”We don’t need a prime minister attending night-clubs,” said Miranda Piercy, a 19-year-old Liberal Democrat supporter. Our overriding aim must be strong defence – but not at any price. The Strategic Defence Review will enable us to do just that.George Robertson. For those who have never known anything but a Tory government, the past three months have been invigorating.

Young people appreciate the more open and relaxed style of Tony Blair’s government. More importantly, the Labour government has indicated its willingness to listen to youth concerns, and take action.
As Richard Benson, editor of The Face magazine, points out: “The relative youth and informality of Blair and his government does impress young people … And we are currently drawing up proposals to be published in the autumn on how we can give effect to plans for defence diversification as outlined in our manifesto.Our achievements extend to the international stage as well. At the European Inter-Governmental conference in Amsterdam, we successfully retained our veto on defence matters whilst winning for the first time the explicit recognition that Nato is the foundation of our and other allies’ common defence. And in Bosnia, we have led the way in bringing those indicted for war crimes to trial.Over the next five years … it is vital that we tackle head-on the problem of overstretch in our armed forces by providing a clearer match between our foreign policy commitments and our defence resources …

Already, we are making a difference and starting to fulfil our manifesto commitments. These include our Strategic Defence Review to reassess essential security interests and defence needs for the next century; and a ban on the import, export, transfer and manufacture of all forms of anti-personnel landmines as well as a moratorium on their use.
Beyond our manifesto commitments, we are also actively looking at how we can expand opportunities for women .. and how we can recruit more people from ethnic minorities. But there is a chasm between their ranking of the things that would make them stay in a job or leave it and their employers’.Employers said salary was the most important factor in retaining staff. Detectives are to continue an investigation into child pornography after a public school teacher charged with possessing indecent material was found dead at the weekend. The RAC, however, reacted without enthusiasm.”If the Government really wanted to have an impact on drinking and driving, there’s a lot more it could do than fiddling with the limits,” said Edmund King, a spokesman for the RAC. “All the research shows that serious offenders aren’t a little bit over the limit; they’re three or four times over. These kinds of people don’t have a problem with driving, they have a problem with drinking, and they’re unlikely to be deterred by lower limits.”Instead of lowering limits or increasing penalties, the RAC would like the Government to extend a voluntary scheme introduced two years ago whereby offenders were given lower sentences in return for attending alcohol rehabilitation classes.