Blair plays safe on environment

Labour leader Tony Blair promised to put protection of the environment at the heart of his party's policies in his first speech on the environment on 27 February. He spelt out how environmental protection fitted with Labour's ideas for a stakeholder economy and reiterated a few of its existing commitments. But he took care not to raise expectations, and conspicuously omitted to endorse a detailed Labour policy document on the environment issued two years ago.