IT felt life-changing. I’ll never forget waking up on 02 May 1997 – which was also the last day of my university finals – to the news that Labour had achieved the landslide victory the opinion polls had promised.

It’s easy now to be cynical about the moment Tony Blair stood in front of huge crowds, almost 20 years to the day, and asked: “A new dawn has broken, has it not?”, marking the end of 18 years of Tory rule that in my case at the time wasn’t far off being a lifetime.

With Blair’s reputation now in tatters, it can be difficult to remember what a remarkable day that was, as the sun shone through and it genuinely felt like better times were coming. It can also be hard to recall that for some, particularly at the beginning of the Blair years, this actually happened to some degree: the Scottish Parliament, the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, unparalleled investment in the NHS and schools, child tax credits and an all important change in the tone of Britain that made the casual racism, sexism and homophobia of the 1980s unacceptable, were all genuine achievements.

I thought of that sunny day in May 1997 this weekend as I watched Jeremy Corbyn bumble through his latest election campaign event, lacking basic presentation skills and competence, never mind actual policies, bereft of even the simple va-va-voom, to borrow a phrase popular in the 1990s, one should be able expect from someone asking you to vote for them as Prime Minister. The contrast could not have been more apparent with thoroughly presentable Mr Blair, whose very slickness eventually turned people off.

But no matter what Mr Corbyn’s supporters say about the inauthenticity of New Labour, for me it comes down to one simple thing: Mr Corbyn is a loser. I don’t think he actually wants to become Prime Minister; more likely this professional activist is happy to lead an anti-capitalist protest movement from the sidelines, revelling in the youthful optimism and mindless adoration of his small band of fans. His continual refusal to oppose the Government on Brexit is the most perplexing political calculation of the last six months; exactly how he thinks this strategy will help the increasingly marginalised folk at the bottom of the ladder he claims to represent is beyond me. Government in waiting? Don’t make me laugh.

There will be no Labour victory in this General Election, and unless the party changes its course – and its leader - quick smart, there may never be another. What Corbyn will never admit is that the UK, an increasingly divided and fractured entity marching to the right towards anti-European oblivion unchecked, has never been more in need of exactly the sort of centrist Government Mr Blair led.

We can only hope that following defeat Mr Corbyn will give up the ghost and allow the party to move on from the unelectable shambles he – and to some extent previous leader Ed Miliband - has created, to reform and re-build under someone else. Who that someone will be remains depressingly unclear, but the likes of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner offer hope. Whoever it is has a formidable task indeed in pulling England and Wales back towards the centre ground.

And whoever that person is may wish to take inspiration from another line in Mr Blair’s New Dawn speech: “We always said that if we had the courage to change we could do it – and we did it.” Scotland may have left the UK by the time Labour becomes electable again. But whether we stay or go, a Labour Government in Westminster would surely be in our interests.

I fell out with Tony Blair, like so many, over Iraq. But I’d far rather live in his Britain than Theresa May’s. Labour now needs to channel his ability to change as never before.