I grew up in the charge of parents who believed that the Labour Party represented the poor, oppressed and huddled masses of the working class. Believing this, they regularly gave their votes to that party whenever they were asked to do so without even pausing to consider issues or arguments; it was an instictive or almost Pavlovian response.
That unquestioning loyalty is what brought the present government to power and has maintained them in it since 1997. That loyalty believed Blair when he offered the prospect of government without sleaze or corruption, just as it believed Harold Wilson's empty rhetoric about advancing into the white heat of the technological revolution or Callaghan's insistence that there was no crisis.
How galling it must be then to read the following in this morning's papers;
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...415978,00.html
(Note to the right of the main article a selection of related articles)
If we don't wake up soon and smell the coffee, the pot will boil dry and the kitchen will go up in flames.