Strangely, it is easier to write a state-of-the-nation drama if you set it in the past

England no longer expects every man to do — or even to know — his duty, and corruption is creeping into our moral culture

'Backward-leaning leftist populism is on the rise. All the old slogans of the 1980s  — "Tory scum" and so on — are making a return'

Michael Mosbacher charts the evolution of a hard-line Marxist into the leader of a cult that believes its "progressive" ends justify any means