Whatever happened to political allegiances? Some say the fading of friction between antithetical group identities is a sign that politics has moved on from ideological infatuation into a new pragmatic dimension. But the reasons for the Right-Left clash are all still there on the ‘global’ carpet, indeed they are magnified by the unifying of the world. The most surprising thing is that the softening of the Left is happening just when the scandal of inequality is breaking. It is hard to avoid the impression that this bland mix of political programmes and proposals, this refusal to disagree on crucial issues, is the result of an unmentioned, and unmentionable, impotence, a real absence of answers to the vital questions of our communal life.