Changing times in `new' England

L ONDON - When Britain's last state-run passenger train whistled outof Euston station here one recent night, it evoked nostalgia andknowing smiles: 50 years after a socialist government nationalizedrailroads, the farewell service of much-mocked British Rail left 24minutes late.

Today, 25 profit-seeking franchise holders operate Britain'srail network across tracks, signals and stations owned by a 26thprivate company, making the privatized railroads a giant symbol ofchange in a country that has dramatically rewritten the rules of itssocial and economic contract.

If you haven't been paying attention, it's time to consign any"quaint Britain" notions to the trunk of Aunt Harriet's Edsel.Boring, stodgy Old Britain is history. In New Britain, the future'sbright, and blue jeans are as cool as tweeds, the free market rules,and the outlook is keenly international."When I lived here 20 years ago, it all seemed so gray, dowdyand down at heel. I can't believe the changes," said returningAmerican Brigette Kavanaugh, dazzled by a slick, up-market London andnonstop shops bursting with ethnic foods and fresh produce fromaround the world.For the record, the busiest highway in Europe is a section ofthe 117-mile M25 beltway around London, finished in 1986. Only 155of the 500 richest people in Britain inherited their wealth, sayswealth tracker Philip Beresford. That's 31 percent, compared with 57percent as recently as 1989 - evidence, he says, that "long-cherishedhopes of developing an enterprise culture are at last beingrealized."Now comes an election that will crystallize nearly two decadesof transformation that Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister,and her Conservative Party successors claim as their legacy.Welcome, paradox. The opposition Labor Party, rejected asradical spendthrifts in four consecutive elections since 1979, seemsheaded for a landslide victory Thursday.Stripping an old workers party of its socialist ethic andpushing it toward the fashionable free-market center, leader TonyBlair has made Labor modish and middle class. The biggest questionis not whether Labor will win, but by how much.A Gallup poll published Monday showed Labor 19 points ahead.Is something wrong, then, with Britain's picture of progress?Why should voters shun the establishment Conservative Party and itspromise of more of what Prime Minister John Major calls "wealth andwelfare"?One reason is that it is time for a change, voters tellpollsters. Class, historically the Conservatives' ace in the hole,counts for less in Britain than ever before. Today, performance -good management - counts most.Under the beleaguered Major, the Conservatives are torn byinternal dissent, especially over Britain's role in a united Europe,and by middling corruption and sexual misdeeds by lawmakers.Labor, by contrast, seems united under squeaky-clean Blair,who, in a neat reversal of type, was born with a silver spoon and isa lawyer trained at Oxford.Disaffection with the status quo means many people are moreenamored with the train of apparent progress than with its drivers."I've done better under the Tories than I could ever haveimagined, and I hate change. But the Conservatives all seem tired -like their policies," said Jerl Le Hane, a London businessman.Official figures show that about 90 percent of people are betteroff in real economic terms today than they were at the end of the'70s, when the weight of militant unions and state-owned rust-bucketindustries - steel, mines, shipyards - mired the country instrike-bound nonproductiveness.The 1979 election Thatcher won is sometimes depicted as theshowdown between the unions and Parliament.In office, a prime minister nicknamed the Iron Lady broke theunions' power and turned Britain more quickly and successfully awayfrom a state-dominated economy than did governments in Germany,France or Italy. Today, Britain is growing faster economically thanany of its major partners in the European Union, even while it isgoverned far more to the left on social issues than any government inWashington could contemplate.State schools in Britain are free, including universities.Everyone has access, cradle to grave, to the free national healthservice. The government is quick to offer job training, unemploymentbenefits and subsidized housing.Tellingly, in a country that prizes both the free market and thewelfare state, the election debate is not about the wisdom of either,but how to make both work better.Thatcher laments that many people today feel so confident in theBritish future they think they can afford a change of government."They feel that they can change the political faces butpreserve the political direction," she said. "The whole of Mr.Blair's strategy in creating the boneless wonder that calls itselfNew Labor is to reassure the electorate in the illusion. Butillusion it remains."In the New Britain, it is not the remaining miners and steelworkers who will elect a government, but the middle class,particularly workers and managers in young, growing service andtechnological industries.The Conservative arias may sound off-key, but Labor is singingremarkably similar lyrics: efficient, honest, well-managed governmentand steady free-market economic growth with improved welfare stateprograms.Lifelong Conservative Stuart Eastwood, a retired Royal Air Forcewing commander, is sold."Blair is a very safe pair of hands. I believe in him," saidEastwood, 58, a new Labor Party volunteer in west London."Conservatives can't claim the credit for what has happened heresince 1979. It's happened in a lot of other places as well. Look atthe computer. In 1979, it took up half a room; today, it fits inyour shirt pocket."