AT THE eND OF hISTORY EVERYONE IS OLD WHIG:

There is a certain amusement in watching the British left thrash about in trying to reinvent the reason for their gaining power. John Harris here is perceptive about which parts of activism are making a difference:

Whenever we are on the road for the Guardian's video series Anywhere but Westminster, we now make a point of focusing on the sources of hope we have found in places as diverse as Grimsby, Walsall, Stoke-on-Trent and inner-city Edinburgh: the kind of local initiatives and projects that sit apart from the state, and are often run by energised, inspirational women. As romantic as it may sound, these things look to me like the modern equivalents of the miners' institutes, friendly societies and working-class self-help organisations that were the wellspring of the early labour movement and the party it eventually spawned.

They are also the modern equivalents of Burke's little platoons, the people who make society work.

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