In May 2010 many on the Left will say it does not matter whether we get a Labour or a Conservative government; that they will be as bad as each other. They are wrong. Labour may have lost its way, but its methods still have some institutional basis in the social democracy of the post-war settlement.

The Conservatives are preparing intellectually to take the Thatcherite revolution to its conclusion – to do away with many of the core tenets of the postwar welfare state compromise between capital and labour once and for all. And once it’s in train, there may not be that much the Left can do about it. The forces may simply be too powerful. Does the left want to run that risk? Paul Cotterill, Liberal Conspiracy.

An argument that can’t be repeated enough.