I AM a floating voter, around long enough to know that no one party has a monopoly on wisdom.

Immediately after the war, battle-weary Britons turned to the left. The nostrums of the welfare state and nationalisation were right for that time. A broad consensus survived until Mrs Thatcher’s ascendency, when the old shibboleths of corporatism, nationalisation, trade union power and state socialism generally were put to bed.

A new consensus emerged, surviving until the recent election of a hard left Labour leader.

Baroness Thatcher would have quickly squashed any notion that her ideas were the end of history; still people search for answers in politics. People yearn for a utopia. It is possible but it will be apolitical, centred on this area of England.

Richard Laversuch, Beales Close, Andover