One problem is that after Thatcher and her lot had totally screwed things up for so long, Labour gave up hope and effectively handed itself over to a leadership that was essentially neo-Thatcherist, just with a kinder face.

Even when pumping money into public services it has felt obliged to do it in a thoroughly Thatcherist style, subsidising private companies to skim off the money and hype up the cost for the public so as to provide the required profits.

But whatever, it's all short term politicking, and and none of them are able to adjust to the idea that the only way to survive long term (ie more than a few decades) is to move to a no growth economy, and to find ways in which that can be reconciled with a decent life for all.