The editor of your Worcester News was one of the first regional newspaper journalists to interview Tony Blair after he became Prime Minister in 1997. As Mr Blair stands down, Kevin Ward recalls the interview and the pledge the new prime minister made to the nation

"WE DELIVERED. We did what we said we would do. Your schools are better, your health service is better, your country is more prosperous, and your society is fairer. This is what we said we would do and we did it."

The words are Tony Blair's. They were delivered to me in July 1997, little more than two months after he had been elected Prime Minister after a landslide victory over John Major's Conservatives.

The venue was the first- class carriage of a train travelling from Bristol to Newport in South Wales.

I was the assistant editor of the Newport-based evening newspaper the South Wales Argus. He was Britain's hope of a bright new future.

His words were in response to the final question in our 15-minute interview - one of the first he had given to a regional newspaper journalist since leading Labour to its first election victory after 18 years of Tory rule.

I can tell you the question exactly because each proposed query for the interview had to be faxed in advance to Downing Street for approval.

Indeed, when I strayed "off message" at one point in the interview I was politely but firmly asked by Alistair Campbell, sat opposite the PM and me throughout our meeting, to "stick to the script".

The question was simple: What will be your message to the electorate at the time of the next general election?

Judge for yourself whether the answer has any validity as Mr Blair steps down after 10 years in power.

Some things did, as Labour's campaign song promised, get better. There are more teachers and nurses, smaller class sizes, newer schools and hospitals, along with the minimum wage, a stable economy, devolution and low inflation.

But do we really live in a fairer society now than we did in 1997? Has there been a massive improvement in our schools and hospitals? In short, did things really get better? The reality is that the country is probably just as sick and tired of New Labour in 2007 as it was of the Tories 10 years ago. When I interviewed Tony Blair he was still riding on a tidal wave of popularity. He was a new broom, sweeping away the sleaze of the Tory years and promising a more open way of running the country. Today he looks as tired and discredited as the Tory government he so spectacularly booted out of office.

His legacy? Iraq. Whatever his achievements, history will link him inextricably with that one word.

And it is by that one word, and all that it entails, that he will be judged.