The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY

NO SERIOUS person regards the first world war as other than an inter-imperialist conflict for power and profits.
But there is nothing impressive about 20-20 vision in hindsight: we should remember the tremendous success of the competing ruling classes in suborning the leaderships of the labour and trade union movements internationally, including socialists, into supporting their war aims, leading to the industrialised slaughter of tens of millions of working people.
Socialists who condemned the US-led campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria were smeared as apologists for Saddam, the Taliban, Gadaffi or Assad, despite their consistent opposition to such regimes.

April 9 1928 – July 26 2025


