Clearly you have bitter personal memories Don. But you will find that most of the reclassification of unemployment data did indeed occur under Tory governments. In any case that does not have any bearing on Labour's achievement of creating two million jobs since 1997. OK, 1978-79 was not Labour's finest hour, but the Wilson governments had some notable achievements. Heath's did too for that matter.

Thatcher, more than anyone in my lifetime, pressed for and brought about a qwuantum shift of emphasis away from society and on to personal greed. This was as significant its way as the Atlee government's measures which gave us a welfare state. The difference is that Attlee was motivated by a commitment to the common good.

Thatcher calculated, correctly, that enough people would benefit to keep her in office, and Blair took note. Both were indiferent to the consequences for families disadvantaged by their policies. As the gap between haves and have-nots grew wider, they simply built an ever higher wall between the two. That wall is our prisons. (In America the gap between rich and poor is even wider, so of course they have to have more prisons.)

Since your memory has a long reach, Don, I wonder if you can remember Bevan's extraordinarily persistent fight to create a national health service, and where the Tories figured in that fight?