"In David Hare's The Power of Yes - the stunning theatrical event at the National which, in documenting the roots of the banking crisis, also does much to illuminate the early pre-history of this watershed election - the only politician depicted on stage is the Labour MP Jon Cruddas, who once worked at Number 10 for Tony Blair and stood for the deputy leadership of the party in 2007. The character of Cruddas - who spoke to Hare as he was writing the play - recalls with considerable irony the mood that informed the Blair-Brown axis at its triumphant peak: "Think about that. The longest period of uninterrupted growth for three hundred years. New Labour bet the ranch on the financial services. And it paid off. Tony Blair told us it was a new economy. The old cycles of capitalism had been abolished. The class-based solutions of old Labour were no longer relevant because the laws of political economy had been suspended..." Brown was being acclaimed as the most successful Chancellor of all time. "Only, you know how the Roman conquerors had people beside them whispering 'sic transit gloria'; Gordon needed somebody whispering 'Regulate'."

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