Labor Government

LONDON -- The last of the annual British party conferences finished last week with the Tories at Bournemouth. Both Labor and Conservative conferences ended on a question the party's members could not -- not yet -- answer.For Labor it was whether they can get to the election (latest, next May) with the magic intact. Labor's lead now seems overwhelming. Can Tony Blair and the party's other new leaders avoid some ghastly error which would hand the Tories, who have been in power now for 17 years, still another term?

LONDON -- Lest you think the U.S. is the only democracy infested by dirty campaigning, focus groups, spin doctors and all that, be advised that the British are doing it, too. Last week, Prime Minister John Major announced that two of the dirty doctors were to be made life peers and sit in the House of Lords.In the United States, of course, political pornographers get no titles. They have to settle for becoming rich.The new barons of the realm are an advertising tycoon, Lord Maurice Saatchi, and the ruling Conservative Party's principal spinner, Lord John Gummer.

OFRA, West Bank -- The fruit of Benjamin Netanyahu's election victory will appear in a field now thick with only brambles and weeds, the Jewish settlers believe.They envision 35 duplex homes arising from the field -- already sown with underground water and power lines -- to house new settlers coming to Ofra.The Labor Party's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin blocked the construction plans to expand the settlement when he won election in 1992, and his successor, Shimon Peres, did the same. The settlers expect Netanyahu to give the go-ahead.

London--David Owen, foreign secretary in a Labor government, then a founder of the now-defunct Social Democrats, is considering becoming a member of the Conservative Party.His mobility would be of marginal interest, except that it serves to illustrate the major political dynamic of the post-Thatcher era: consensus politics.There is now less difference between the two major parties here than there has been for decades. The battle at the next election will be between the comparatively gray leaders of two moderate parties for the middle ground; the major issue will be which of them can best manage a free-market economy.

LONDON -- The three contenders to succeed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher all claimed yesterday that they could beat the opposition Labor Party in the next general election.Their ability to ensure a fourth Conservative term in office is crucial to the self-survival instincts of the 372 members of Parliament who will vote tomorrow for a new leader.Under the increasingly unpopular leadership of Mrs. Thatcher, Labor had held a consistent double-digit lead in the polls throughout the year. But her resignation reversed that, with opinion polls yesterday saying that any of the Conservative leadership contenders could beat Labor.

BLACKPOOL, England -- Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock presented himself to British voters yesterday as prime-minister-in-waiting, eager for power at home and influence abroad."