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Anyway, back to the bankers -- will be interesting to see if it begins to have an effect on the opinion polls. This really is delicious, see: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/11/hsbc-files-show-tories-raised-over-5m-from-hsbc-swiss-account-holders Conservative donors, peers and a...

Referenda themselves are problematic when they are not properly engaged with and debated. This is what happened with the electoral reform referendum of 2011 (42% turnout), in stark contrast to the Scottish one (85% turnout).

Spot on. But it's also about identifying, deliberating, disagreeing and deciding on an issue that is substantial. This was the case with the Scottish referendum, but not that dire, limited sideshow we were granted with the electoral referendum granted by the coalition (remember that?).

I agree wholeheartedly with your last two paragraphs, but am unclear as to what you're actually arguing in the first. Is it that you think we should attempt 'real socialism'; if so, who has attempted it, and when?

WW2 was of course hugely significant in this, but I think the experience of the 1930s played a formative role. I'm not 'rose-tinted' about 1945-1975. There were all those developments you mention but also, more importantly, the backdrop of the Cold War and especially the Cuban missile crisis...

We managed it in 1945. That ushered in a thirty year period of high growth, few and limited downturns, and an increasingly egalitarian share of the spoils. And unlike the French in 1789 and the Russians in 1917, it was managed without any internal blood shed. It's happened. We should do it...

If we all just get on with our lives then they'll be left with a free rei(g)n, so I won't ignore it.

You're opposed to whistle-blowers, now. I wonder whether anyone else is on here? And what a strange place to invoke it, exposing the 'privacy' of exorbitantly wealthy tax dodgers. Can you confirm to us whether the identities of these have been revealed?