In a moment of progressive triumph you can rely on the New Statesman to depress you.

This is Martin Bright's article on how the British left might ape Obama's triumph.

It's mightily depressing because Bright seems to think that a few potentiall popular policy ideas are the same as a credible policy platform and political philosophy, and far too many people with me on the left will rush to agree.

And as if unilateral disarmament is a new and credible idea. In the right context, I think it is goer, but that context involves a proper rethink about the UK's strategic posture (see previous post). And I also oppose ID cards, but simply cancelling them isn't a counter terrorism strategy.

The tragedy is that the financial crisis and Obama's triumph provides a unique moment in which the British left could re conceptualise itself and break free from the stale arguments of the past. Instead we get a list of half-baked policy ideas presented as a coherent philosophy.