T he defiant strains of "The Red Flag" drifted over Westminster like a lament for another age. The Labour MPs gathered outside the Commons last month sang the party anthem as they pressed for a return to a traditional leftwing agenda, jettisoned for the 10 years of Tony Blair's "red rose" social democracy.

They are not the only ones suffering an identity crisis. Mr Blair's decade in power demolished almost every recognisable landmark on the political scene as he drove his party towards the centre, leaving all parties looking for new ideological bearings.