From the archive: The apotheosis of Tammany Jim

Former NS editor Paul Johnson rages against Callaghan ’s jilting of the left.

Callaghan brokered a Lib-Lab pact’ with the Liberal Party to restore power.

He has successfully torn the ideological guts out of the Labour Party and hurled them into the dustbin.

Michael Foot has found a huge taste for power in the last three years .

Foot was ready to pledge his final tranche of socialist reputation to help Jim to stay in No 10.

Only a year ago Foot opposed Callaghan as party leader on precisely the grounds that he was a natural conservative who might do a deal at the party's expense.

Tammany Jim ’s deal with the Liberals brought a brief respite, “sweet not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a moment” But the unions have custody of the only bit of policy the government is still free to enact: Wage Restraint Phase Three.

Both parties are fully prepared to renounce the deal the moment they judge it opportune.

The longer the Government prolongs its existence will be its eventual defeat.