Via Tim Worstall I decided to read Polly, a rare occasion, and was taken with this misleading comment:Ed Balls shows up to name a gleaming new school IT unit after Gwynneth Dunwoody. Teachers say this school consisted of tin huts that melted biro ink in summer and froze the children in winter, a temporary structure built to last 15 years still in use 50 years later - until this beautiful landscaped, eco primary was rebuilt. So did they thank Labour? Several teachers I asked shrugged and pulled a face. Politics is not just about delivery, it's about inspiring affection - or at least grudging respect.
Leaving aside Tim's reasonable comment that Ed Balls shouldn't have been doing this during a by-election I thought about the numbers. If the temporary structure was built 50 years ago, 1958, to last 15 years then it should have been replaced from 1973.
Since that time we have had the following Governments:
1973 - 1974 Tory (Heath, who may as well have been Labour he was such a statist)-
1 year
1974 to 1979 Labour - 5 years
1979 to 1997 Tory - 18 years
1997 to 2008 - Labour - 11 years
I make this 19 years Tory and 16 years Labour, give or take a few months, so in reality a pox on both their houses.
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