Andy Burnham’s recollections of Britain in the 1970s must be pretty hazy. He was nine when the decade ended. Kemi Badenoch, born in 1980, can remember nothing. Lacking first-hand experience, the Conservative leader evokes the turmoil of a bygone era with cautionary zeal borrowed from an older generation. In a speech last week, she accused the new prime minister of pining for “endless strikes, rubbish not being collected, bodies not being buried, inflation at 25% and a chancellor going cap-in-hand to the IMF”.

This is more incantation than argument, a ritual fondling of beads on the Tory rosary. It is a symptom of a leader under stress, affirming her faith in Our Lady Margaret Thatcher and warding off socialist devils. Burnham has done nothing to support the claim that his government is a 70s tribute act, unless you count the appointment of a man named Healey as chancellor and the imposition of price controls on buses.

What the prime minister has done is trace Britain’s present malaise to choices made in the Thatcher era. From the threshold of No 10 he delivered the verdict on that legacy: “Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, large parts of the country de-industrialised, and they still haven’t recovered.” That statement has become the foundation stone for an edifice of neuralgic conservative commentary, bemoaning Britain’s capture by anti-market, pro-state fanatics.

The right of British politics seems to be disoriented by the appearance of a Labour prime minister whose message isn’t crafted as a preemptive flinch at the accusation that he might come from the left, believe some leftish things and gamble on them being popular. Nigel Farage is playing it safe with the predictable but flimsy complaint that Burnham lacks a mandate. The Reform UK leader knows that isn’t how British politics works and, given that his personal ratings are on a downward drift, he doesn’t want........

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