When I was young you knew what socialism was. Men in cloth hats and strong regional accents ranting on TV about “the workers” and going on strike all the time. Politicians trying to micromanage every aspect of the economy: prices, wages, exchange rates, interest rates, ownership of industry etc and making a huge mess of it. Huge taxation (98% income tax under Wilson/Callaghan) of anyone who was successful. And a succession of political and economic disasters.

This has all gone. Now we have a new socialism which I am calling Neosocialism and it has certain distinct characteristics.

• Professional politicians with little or no real world experience. Mostly from a metropolitan “elite”. Never had a proper job. Go “Up North” as rarely as possible. Avoid Scotland like the plague that it has become for them.
• Very friendly with bankers and other City types. No nationalisation. Oppose all industrial action. Hands off approach to the economy.
• Rich, middle class leadership and upper ranks. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Harriet Harman, Chuka Umunna, Tristram Julian William Hunt, Hilary James Wedgwood Benn.
• Becoming very rich indeed out of politics. Neil Kinnoch, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown.
• Amazing hypocrisy. Hiring people on zero hours contracts whilst denouncing these. Avoiding tax whilst criticising everyone else who does. In fact an all encompassing culture of “do what I say, not what I do”.
• Utter and total contempt for their voter base. The obvious examples are Gillian Duffy and also Emily Thornberry’s white van Tweet, but Ed Miliband’s persistent litany of lies in the recent election campaign showed that he thought potential Labour voters are all idiots.
• Embracing “diversity” and “multiculturalism” at the expense of traditional British values such as decency, free speech and the rule of law. Resulting in mass organised sexual abuse of many thousands of children around Britain. And many other societal problems.
• Avarice. We all know about the MP expenses scandal. But what most people don’t realise is that there were very thorough investigations of every MP and only six were prosecuted for criminal fraud. And all of these six were Labour; Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine, Eric Illsley, Margaret Moran, and Denis MacShane.
• Being in America’s pocket. With Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher the UK and USA were equal partners on the world stage. In sharp contrast Blair/Brown were poodles to Bush, taking us on an illegal hare brained war which resulted in a million deaths.
• Destroying the fabric and cohesion of British society with mass immigration of huge numbers of people, many of who refuse to integrate and who try to enforce their primitive barbaric beliefs on us.

Any cogent, sentient, erudite person who has lived in Great Britain over the last 20 years will recognise all of the above. So Neosocialism it is then. And it is not just a UK phenomenon, it can be found in most European countries.