The future leaders of the Left either don’t know their history, or prefer a made-up version of it.
Mercifully, there remain a few Thatcherites, even in the Cabinet, who believe in the power of liberty, responsibility, commerce and voluntary action.
The former Labour MP’s defection, and the later split within that party, has not yet found in a parallel in our own turbulent times.
The Prime Minister showed that on her home turf, in the Commons, she is still a very difficult woman to get out.
None the less, campaigns are not devised for the entertainment of journalists and websites. They are crafted to win votes. Which this one seems to be doing.
The situation is volatile, but on balance it is more likely that Labour will hang on, and that Paul Nuttall will be the first victim of Thursday’s by-election.
There is still some way to go before we can be sure this is a truly new approach, and not a return to what has been tried before.
None the less, the local Conservatives exploited the climate of prejudice, while Labour sometimes bent to accommodate it.
It has been where there is an air of panic and chaos, with a government forced to bow its knee to the markets, that there is real political damage.
Plus: August, the best political month. Thatcher, the best post-war Prime Minister. Off to Any Questions. Off to Edinburgh. And: will I poison an MP?
They have gone either way in successive elections, but their recent results show up electoral trends that helping the Tories.
If the Conservatives spoke a progressive alliance, and meant it, they might be able to make some progress – and break down virulent anti-Toryism.