1983 And All That

With the death of Sir Gerald Kaufman, prepare for endless lazy repetition of the line about "the longest suicide note in history".

Then look up the 1983 Labour manifesto.

See, in the intervening 34 years, how much of it has happened, anyway.

And consider how much better Britain would have been if much of the rest had happened, too.

Indeed, from leaving the EU, to abolishing the House of Lords as the only way of leaving the EU (which was precisely Tony Benn's argument before, during and after 1983), it is the Conservatives who are preparing to implement the points that remain unaccomplished.

Just as it has been they who have presided over most of the current period of State-owned banks.

A period that has now lasted for quite some time, and which shows no realistic sign of ever coming to an end.