New Labour, like Old Labour, wants to look out for our welfare ‘from cradle to grave’, but now in a strictly authoritarian manner on the assumption that experts are more capable of managing our lives than we are. So we are advised, vetted, banned, ordered and cajoled on everything from smoking, eating and drinking to how we dispose of our waste and where we drive our cars...

None of that will change. Even the new economic plans are simply the result of technocratic debate amongst government insiders and their advisers. New Labour - indeed, the entire political class - remains fundamentally suspicious of the opinions and behaviour of ordinary people...While the economy goes down the drain, the rest of us remain passive spectators.

Alastair Darling, in a pale pastiche of John Maynard Keynes, might want to create a few jobs to prop up the economy. But the obituary writers for New Labour will remain unemployed for the foreseeable future.