Which begs the question why has New Labour followed the Thatcher ideology, and why oh why did Brown ask the old bat to attend tea at No 10. The last time I saw her i was hoping it would be laying in state, which is what Blair said should happen, he stated she was such a great leader she should have a state funeral.

the state funeral I give her is open up a deep pit and drop her down the shaft.

But it does make you wonder why New Labour did follow her and not make a name as a party of socialism, but with a new out look

Scary stuff - but always good to be reminded who the enemy are. I thought Cameron's unquestioning support for Thatcher was very revealing - and perhaps shows where he really stands when you cut through all the marketing hype. The more I see of Cameron - the more he reminds me of Dubya in his approach - nice friendly social conservatism while trying to be elected, emphasis on marketing and lack of intellectual substance, dog whistles to the true believers, underhand and co-ordinated attacks on opponents, a child of the political machine (did Dubya ever do a real job) - and then if elected the hard line ideologue appears.

The same divisions that existed within the conservatives then still exist now. When Cameron was first elected he projected himself as a Blair-lite figure, willing to take on the party with non-Tory policies such as flight taxes. But now that the Tory right have regrouped, most of these have been thrown out the window. They are now being replaced with the tried and tested dog-whistle politics of Tory tradition. This week Cameron has signalled that he will retreat on flight taxes and that he is in favour of reducing the abortion limit. Expect much more of the same in the coming weeks.

It could all have been so different. Labour kicked out in 1996, Tony Blair back to the bar, another eighteen years of Tory rule. No minimum wage, no new hospitals, no economic stability, state school buildings still falling down, no pension credits, no new NHS doctors, nurses, teachers or classroom assistants. Iain Dale minister for something not too demanding and too busy to blog (so not all bad then) and we'd still have joined Bush in his Iraq madness....

But at least Robert could have carried on in peace dreaming his dreams of the ideal state....

I thought Abbot and Portillo were a comedy double act with a resident slot on The Daily Politics Show with Andrew Neil? Have they split up?

In any event, I would have preferred to see Maggie go out with a bang at Brighton rather than knocked off her high horse and stabbed in the back by assassins in the Tory Party.

BTW, does anybody know what happened to the Tory Party? Do they have any plans to make a come back or was their last really a farewell tour?

The ideal state, 1940's in which Labour brought out Welfare reforms, the NHS and social housing.

I suppose this was our best period in power.

I've lost the use of my legs I spend most of my time now fighting to keep going, until somebody says to you your dying life might look cheap, once your told your life is over you fight like hell to keep it.

I'm in a pathways to work area, unlike many I've worked most of my life until the accident, I spent eighteen months laying in a hospital bed with a contraption pulling my spine and spinal cord straight. The employer accepted liability, but stated my back injury was caused by my playing rugby in school twenty six years before.

During my eighteen months in a hospital bed my employer came to see me once to get the keys of the van, and to hand me my notice of termination of employment, the day after i was informed I'd not walk again. I signed myself out of hospital because the long term plan was to move me to a side ward and leave me in hospital.

I got home bought a wheelchair and started work the next week, I worked for a year until one day the company said if we keep you on another week, we will become responsible for you , I was sacked, I've been sacked six times when it comes to the one year rule.

Sadly I needed an operation on my spine after I could not go to the toilet, they found my bladder nerves had stopped working and then my bowel failed, but what was the reason, well I had MRSA.

Since this I've kept my family a wife who is my carer, and two kids on 87 quid a week.

So yes I do dream of an ideal world sadly not within new Labour government.

Robert, I'm not really in a position to advise you without the full details, but if you are as you describe a disabled person with two dependent children and a wife acting as a carer, you are woefully under claiming if you are only getting 87 pounds a week.