Since the Reagan/Thatcher ascendancy, it has been harder to make the case for a progressive agenda. Not only were the dominant governing parties of the right, but the language of progressism was marginalised by that of the economic juggernaut of market economics, which assumed for itself the mantle of the natural and the good. Other models were derided as failed or sickly. An experiment began in market driven reforms which remains with us to this day.

Progressives should take heart though from the often patchy achievements that have followed, for while GDP has grown in most Western countries, inequality and job-related anxiety have followed hard upon it. Perhaps there is an emerging consensus again that there is a place for a mild redistribution of wealth through the tax system and a place for government in the economy.

Moreover a progressive agenda includes the social changes that have occurred (and that many continue to aspire to) since 1945 and which are undoubtedly unsettling to conservatives. Like Clinton and Obama, I came on board for same-sex marriage a little later than perhaps I should have, for there was a conservative and religious case that gave me pause. But evolve I did.

You always have to give yourself permission to change your mind if you are so convinced of another point of view.