New Labour was a great success

Firstly we have to go back 39 years and Wilson to find the last all singing, all dancing, socialist prime minister who was actually elected. When he retired there followed a list of similarly persuaded leaders who condemned the party to 18 humiliating years of opposition until the great Satan came along to ruin things by crushing the Tories on a nationwide friendly ticket. It should be remembered that, as New Labour candidates racked up huge majorities in the most unlikely places, Saint Tony (Benn) barely managed to hold on in Chesterfield.

Socialism, as interpreted and desired by our Marx brothers Bongo and Stucco, curled up its toes in 1979. I have to tell them, for all their many qualities, their commendable concern for the less fortunate, it ain’t coming back anytime soon, not in a society as materialistic and shallow as ours. Realpolitik determines that the Daves have not a prayer of seeing their wishlist ticked unless Labour, or whoever they support, is elected and if they honestly believe that the politics of Benn or McCluskey would be so popular as to bring this about then, well, words fail me.

This leads me finally to a point made earlier and the lack of any acknowledgement that New Labour brought in lots of measures which ought to have been well received by the pair. In no particular order, unparalleled investment in our public services, the minimum wage, a freedom of information act, human rights set into law, pensioner entitlements, record employment, falling crime, gay rights regulation, an anti-hunt bill and a negotiated peace in Northern Ireland to name but a few. None would have seen the light of day if the Bennite Neanderthals had had their way, because the Tories would probably have won again.

Ian Hoyle, Broom Valley Road, Rotherham