It’s time to pass the baton to the next generation

In last week's issue of this magazine, we lamented the trivial bickering and crude electioneering of the party leaders as the election approaches and asked: "Where are the ideas? Where is the vision? Where are the policies to create a fairer and more democratic society?"

Despite three consecutive and historic general election victories for the Labour Party over the past 13 years, the triangulations of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson have left mainstream progressive politics in the UK intellectually hollowed out, bereft of an animating or compelling vision of "the good society".

Not a quote from some Tory rag or right-wing blogger but from the leader in the New Statesman.