TONY BLAIR stepped out of his helicopter and breezed up the steps into The Sage, his brilliant white shirt shining out amid the grey Gateshead day.

From across the river, he might have heard - if not seen - the blare of hunting horns from the modest number of protestors who had been allowed to gather outside the law courts in the neighbouring city of Newcastle.

From out of nowhere behind him, a phalanx of smiley, happy people appeared as if by magic.

They ran, jumped and whooped to get close to the Prime Minister as he strode purposefully into The Sage. A beaming young mother, in big, baggy brown trousers, joyfully held her baby aloft as if he required anointing.

For in these friendly surroundings, and even with his falling personal popularity, there is still something Messianic about the MP for Sedgefield. He bounded up The Sage's interior stairs, stopping every few steps for a wave, which allowed his followers to flock at his feet.

Of course, he had just performed his own version of the 12 Stations of the Cross - the Six Stops of the Pledge Card. At each stopping off spot on his journey North, he told how his Government had resurrected Britain.

But these, though, are not the concrete pledges of 1997, when Labour promised quantifiable things such as cutting primary class sizes to 30 or fewer or treating 100,000 extra patients on the NHS. Indeed, these are wishy-washy aspirations - your family better off, your country's borders protected.

"When I was on my way up here, I had a chance to see how this must look from the outside," said Mr Blair. "One of the journalists said it was all great razzamatazz, but what does it all mean? Surely everyone would say they want their family to be better off?

"But that pledge is about a stable economy, mortgages as low as possible, low inflation, more people in work, the minimum wage, help for first-time buyers. These are things the Conservatives don't believe. These are things the Conservatives opposed every single inch of the way."

In 1997, one of the pledges was a tongue-stumbling "Fast-track punishment for persistent young offenders by halving the time from arrest to sentencing".

Today's pledges are broad brush and unarguable - "your community safer".

They sound good, and yesterday - with all the young, happy, smiley, people - should have looked good on television. For this "conference" was no more than an elaborate television spectacular to start a campaign that will run and run until May 5. Its slogan is "Forward and not back".

"You will hear a lot of that - forward and not back," said election co-ordinator Alan Milburn. "And that's another pledge".

And so no one looked back - not even the protestors - and mentioned Iraq. It was almost miraculous.