THEY were big numbers for a big gamble. Yesterday Gordon Brown backed a £61 billion hunch that better public services will keep Labour in power.

Just to underline the risk, the Stock Market promptly plummeted, wiping £55 billion off the value of shares.

The Chancellor's comprehensive spending review involves sums of money too vast to comprehend. But the inspiration behind the billions is simple: to provide better homes for families, better schools for children, safer streets and improved transport.

New Labour is finally doing what it was voted in to do. For years, this country has spent far too little on our public services. In its first years in power, Labour froze spending, leaving it investing less in education than its Tory predecessor.

That mistake was rectified yesterday. The main winner of Mr Brown's pay-out was education.

Too many schools nationwide are failing. Thousands of children are being let down by poor lessons in under-resourced classrooms. They leave as soon as they are able, denied the hope and opportunity that education should deliver.

New Labour has already made a big difference to primary schools, cutting class sizes and improving teaching. Now it is turning its attention to the secondary sector.

Yesterday, Mr Brown announced the highest increase in schools spending for a generation. Today, Education Secretary Estelle Morris outlined the radical reforms that go with the near-£13 billion increase.

This will amount to the biggest shake-up since Labour introduced comprehensive schools. Comprehensive education is still a cherished ideal in the party, and the system can work, as North Yorkshire's excellent secondary schools testify.

But there are too many poor schools to ignore. It remains to be seen whether the reforms announced today will raise standards across Britain to those we enjoy here.

Labour, and Mr Brown in particular, do not have much time. The next election could be two years away and the public will expect results. If they do not, the political hopes of both party and Chancellor will be badly damaged.

Updated: 11:01 Tuesday, July 16, 2002