An image that jolts the brain is Blair’s promise of ‘compassion with a hard edge’. The late Mother Therese packing a Kalashnikov under her cassock ? Benefit staff shrieking “Take this cash - or I’ll smash your face in’ ? With terror I remember a teacher drumming into a reluctant pupil a lesson in religion, by emphasising each word with slaps to alternate sides of the face. “Remember what I said , ‘God’ (slap) ‘is’ (slap) ‘love’ (slap), ‘God’ (slap) ‘is’ (slap) ‘love’ (slap).” That was education with a hard edge. It will all end in sobs.