"the same position the UK was before Thatcher" - those were pretty good times, looking back. Far better than what followed. "Winter of discontent" was a good phrase, but it even that brief enough episode conmpared pretty favourably against the decades of despair - and against a corruption of private and public life which has largely carried over into the Blair years.

And if anyone thinks that President Chirac is on the left of politics they are pretty clearly pretty out of touch. Unless they think Bush is on the left.