TONY Blair sounded and looked like a man in full control of his party, his country and his future yesterday.

Even though yesterday morning's papers had been full of Gordon Brown's alleged attempted coup - "I'm Gord and ready" and "10 Browning Street" punned the tabloids - Mr Blair has an agenda for his leadership for the next couple of years.

And there is no reason for him to go early. He was the one who was elected for a third term with a very presentable majority. He was the one that Middle England put their faith in - whether they will ever put their faith in Mr Brown is something that only the true democratic test of a General Election can discover.

But as Mr Blair stepped back from the stage yesterday with the applause ringing in his ears, one wonders if he thought for even a moment about what a lucky Prime Minister he was.

Last week, we had the strange sight of a Liberal Democrat party, which had done pretty well at the election, trying to work out whether it was Liberal or Democrat, high or low tax and whether it had a leader it wanted. The leader himself admitted he might not have done as much leading as he should have done, and would try to do better.

Next week, we have the strange prospect of a Conservative leader stepping down and no one ready to replace him. Yesterday, the party rejected the mechanism its out-going leader was trying to put in place to choose his successor - even though a majority of the party voted in favour of this mechanism!

So the principal opposition party is so inept that it cannot even run a leadership ballot let alone a country, and the secondary opposition party - which a few months ago was telling everyone that it was "the real alternative" - is struggling to understand the very reason it exists.

We are in an unpopular war which, one fears, is about to turn nasty; we are in worrying economic straits which, one fears, are about to downturn painfully.

And yet the only opposition to Mr Blair comes from within his own party, from Mr Brown. He is the only one to have a coherent vision of the future - and, by and large, it is as New Labour as Mr Blair's.