With the general election campaign underway and the result less than a month away, it’s worth asking what will be different this time around.  Whether there is a change of government or not, the video above provides some useful reminders. Leaders can promise to make changes, can offer hope and can find their efforts and the efforts of other reformers thwarted. It is clear, from the words of Blair, that delivering “change in the public sector and public services” is not just hard work, but a “battle” of so-called “reformers versus wreckers”.

The challenge facing the next government shall be even greater than that faced by Blair, for the difference is that there shall not be record increases in public spending or public sector pay. In fact any desire to improve public services will be constrained by the pressing need to curb the deficit and get the national debt under control. It is also reasonable to assume that the general economic environment could prove to be far from benign.

It is also the case that the UK, like other economies, faces the challenge of ever-increasing demand pressure on the public services through a combination of socioeconomic and demographic factors. Without new approaches and the triumph of reformers over wreckers, the competitiveness of the UK economy and the welfare of the public and especially those who are most vulnerable shall suffer.

The high-level answer must surely be a smaller state and a stronger society - but the £160bn question that the public is beginning to ask (see Question Time [16m55s]) is how can this be delivered? No answers were forthcoming last night - but it’s a question that won’t and shouldn’t go away. If our politicians don’t answer it to the satisfaction of our financial markets after the election, it will be the men and women of the IMF that will answer it for us.