There Is No Alternative, Indeed

"A year off without pay" is not much of an offer.

But put together Theresa May's proposals on workers rights and her proposals on housing, and then try and imagine the reaction if Jeremy Corbyn were saying exactly the same thing.

As, of course, he has been for years.

Similarly, if May had proposed substantially the leaked Labour manifesto, much of which could indeed have featured in one of her set piece speeches, then the media outlets that scream hysterically at Corbyn about Venezuela and what have you, would have reacted in an entirely different manner.

It is possible that May is onto something. Being the other side while screeching abuse at it worked for long enough for Tony Blair.

While the most prominent party that does not accept the two per cent military spending target as the price of the 0.7 per cent Overseas Aid target goes into this Election with one seat, and is going to come out of it with at least that one, the party that does not accept the 0.7 per cent Overseas Aid target as the price of the two per cent military spending target goes into this Election with no seats, and is going to come out of it with no seats.

It is not only because of the different electoral system that the party that wants to go back to Erich Honecker does better in the old East Germany than the party that wants to go back to Margaret Thatcher does in Britain.

Indeed, look at how all policies, even those of UKIP, are now judged by how well they play to "traditional Labour voters in the North of England", who are unquestioningly deemed to be the pure soul and radiant conscience of British politics.

Leaving aside the existence of other traditional Labour supporters, and of other people in the North of England, that exaltation of the moral authority of the people who voted Labour throughout the Thatcher and Major years amounts to defining the debate in terms of the wrongness of the results in 1979, 1983, 1987 and 1992.

As much as anything else, that entirely cuts the ground from under the foundations of New Labour. Among very much else besides.