Northcote Parkinson is slightly less right-wing and decidedly less funny than Peter Simple. What he has attempted to do in this book∗ is to critically follow the progress of the Labour Party from Keir Hardie to Wilson.
His thesis is that by the 1950s Labourism had run out of steam and ideas. He makes a number of telling points but none more devastating than to tell straight how Crosland, in his "Future of British Socialism", tried to construct an ersatz ideology for Labourism. Crosland assembled a programme of twelve socialist points and then sadly dropped all but two - welfare and the desire for equality - which might be electorally useful. Workers' Control and Clause Four went early on in this particular balloon debate.
The book is at its funniest when Harold is quoted. "We are not a flag-waving party, but we are a deeply patriotic party." Parkinson comments, "This is true: and often, one might add, appallingly true."
The High Tory Parkinson sees no role left for Labourism. They have nothing left to say on the great issues of the day. "....the founders of British Socialism ended, many of them, as Communists. To stop short of this, in the style of British Socialists, talking of democratic equality but dreaming of the plan which is to save the world, is merely futile. Without Marxism as its logical sequel, socialism is nothing."
∗ "Left Luggage" by C. Northcote Parkinson, published by John Murray at 25/-