Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images A golden rule in politics is that anything badged as “radical” or “bold” is the exact opposite. Tony Blair’s much publicised essay on the future of the country has left this rule safely intact. In keeping with the New Labour tradition, the essay calls for a transformation of the economy, but without fundamentally changing anything. Britain under Blair’s programme would still be geographically imbalanced, dependent on high-value service exports and global finance to sustain a standard of living that we have not been able to afford for over 50 years. This is a cosmetic economic strategy. The patient will still be terminally ill, but at least it will look slightly healthier to keep up appearances on the global stage. At the turn of the millennium, when the country was surfing a once-in-a-century expansion in financial service exports and eking out the last drops of a consumer credit boom, this cosmetic economics could be considered harmless.…