The Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations are thankfully behind us, but in their wake they have left a mark of shame at the sheer amount of public money involved not only in paying for this event, but in propping up the Monarchy year after year, an institution as ludicrous as it is pernicious in the 21st century.

Imagine being Jimmy Carr right now, your face plastered all over the nation's media as public enemy number one, revealed as the latest in a rogue's gallery of greedy bastards who'd employed a tax avoidance scheme to ensure his tax burden was lighter than a fly's wing.

Ultimately, if the Labour Party under Ed Miliband's stewardship is to offer a progressive alternative to the Tory-led coalition government, it must break decisively with Blairism.

It's as if the government is inviting young people to riot. A mass social experiment in human despair is not the same as an economic or social policy. Nor is it appropriate to have sociopaths running the country.