British political history maps onto Soviet decline: Thatcherism functioned like Leninism (revolutionary idealism that didn't work as supposed), Blairism like the reformist Khrushchevite phase of mending market failures, and the last 14 years of Conservative government like Brezhnev-era stagnation — a neotraditionalist phase that gives up real reform and just 'sings the old songs' hoping they work.