You're right about Blair and Brown, in the first two or three years after being elected they most certainly continued the tight spending plans which left little scope for increases in benefits. Sludge isn't a Blairite, i don't think, yet he calls for the abolishment of the Labour Party and some kind of odd coalition with the Liberals in order to give the electorate a chance of overthrowing the Tories. You make sense of that if you can.