ABSTRACT
Eric Hobsbawm Politics for a Rational Left (1989) Any attempt to ‘reconstruct’ British politics has to be set against the background of what is actually happening. We have to start from where we are; and where we are is not very promising. If it was just the case that recent history (less euphemistically, the Thatcher Governments of the 1980s) had taught the lesson that there were too few constraints on executive power in Britain and that constitutional adjustments of various kinds were therefore required to restore the balance of the constitution, the task would be formidable enough. In fact, matters are altogether more serious.
