But, as poor Polly Toynbee ceaselessly points out in column after column and book after book, it simply isn’t true. In classic terms, of increased state power, higher taxes and a bigger welfare state, with legions of people employed by the public sector, Labour is our most left-wing government since 1945-51. In terms of constitutional revolution, it is the most radical since Cromwell. Culturally and socially, it has hugely outdone Harold Wilson and Roy Jenkins in turning the ‘permissive society’ into the politically correct society. In foreign policy, it has made us more subservient to continental powers than any ruler since Charles II sold the country to Louis XIV at the secret Treaty of Dover. There is also a strong case, which I won’t elaborate just here, for making out that the Iraq war is not ‘right wing’, but originated in radical leftist ideas about reforming the world, combined with a leftist contempt for national sovereignty. ~Peter Hitchens

With the exception of the bit about Europe, much of the same might be said about the Bush era.