So, in Leeds, a pleasant surprise: there was no watering down; no nervous-nellyism. Labour’s radical plans for devolution, the cleaning up of politics and the abolition of the House of Lords have already produced the predictable wails, sniffs and head-shaking.
A dank cloud of unease hangs over the Palace of Fun: conservatism in Britain stretches much more widely than the Conservative Party. I don’t suppose Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer expected a lot of applause for today’s announcements. But, from all progressives, they deserve it. Theirs is a package which would change Westminster for the better – and for ever – and which goes a long way to answering the chronic problem of an over-centralised Britain.
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