James Purnell won’t thank Guido for wishing this out loud, but when the civil war starts in the Labour Party after the general election, may Purnell be on the winning side.  If he wins a not forgotten Thatcherite aspiration will be realised – we will no longer have a socialist opposition party.

He gave a speech in Chile yesterday setting out how he thinks capitalism should be saved, how it can be more egalitarian and predicting that the next decade will be capitalist.  He also wants less power for the state and politicians –  which all sounds very much like a Thatcherite agenda for popular capitalism.

The coded bit of the speech that struck Guido was this:

People are worried about the extraordinary instability that was bubbling below the long boom of the last two decades.  We can’t promise to end instability.

Who presided over that bubble? Who promised to end the instability of boom and bust? Do you think Gordon Brown will be happy with the speech?