It is only recently, with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party, that we have seen the regulation of the market returning to a position of prominence in mainstream leftist economic policy in Britain. We will see, in the years to come, whether this actually comes to anything in the face of a ferocious and long-running attack by the entrenched liberal elites who wield such power in the Labour Party and the mainstream media. The Blairites still might engineer a comeback. The scale of capitalism’s victory is particularly striking when we remember key Blairite figures utilising right-wing rhetoric about the fundamental benefits of free market capitalism. Here is Peter Mandelson, at the time Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in Blair’s first Labour government, on the approach to aphoristic eloquence: ‘We want a society that celebrates and values its business heroes as much as its pop stars and footballers. So we must remove the barriers to enterprise in this country, reward risk-taking, and encourage innovation and creativity.’

Britain’s hollowed-out electoral democracy is, quite simply, not providing ordinary men and women with an appealing vision of a better future. Only a tiny number of mainstream politicians actively endorse genuine change. The majority hope only to manage the market economy a little better, and perhaps iron out a few bureaucratic impediments here and there. The dominance of neoliberalism across a truncated political spectrum means that, when it comes to personal failure, frustration and anxiety, accounts of inadequate talent and poor decision-making tend to predominate. People believe in personal agency, hard work and meritocracy. Forty years of neoliberalism have seen to that.

If you are talented and work hard, you will rise. Alternatively, if you happen to find yourself unemployed, flat broke and alone, you have no one to blame but yourself. You have failed to take advantage of the opportunities that were provided for you. You have shown inadequate talent and fortitude. You deserve nothing better. You do not even deserve sympathy, because your personal failures mean that those who work harder have unfairly become responsible for your upkeep.

But neoliberalism’s ideological centre cannot hold forever. The cynicism and pessimism that abounds in our political culture certainly does not rule out a return to politics at some point in the future.