Andy Burnham does a nice line in nostalgia. His first party conference speech as prime minister was full of fond memories for the Britain of the 1950s and 1960s, when working-class families could sense their lives steadily getting better. The underlying message of his address was that, given time, he could rekindle that optimism and return the country to how it was before Margaret Thatcher wrecked everything.
Much of what Burnham says is true. The 1980s was a decade of deindustrialisation, asset-stripping and financial deregulation that has shaped modern Britain – and not in a good way.
