Andy Burnham meets reality

In the Seventies, a phrase emerged in Left-wing circles: “actually-existing socialism.” It had been used by Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, the communist leaders of the Soviet Union and East Germany, to describe the political and economic model in the Soviet countries. They meant it positively, but it implied a sad discrepancy between the utopian, radical ideals of the Left, and the reality of their grand designs east of the Elbe. Like the comrade-citizens of the Eastern Bloc — taught all the ways of brotherhood and abundance, but used to sclerotic central planning — we’re about to find out what “actually-existing Burnhamism” looks like. The recess is over, and so is the honeymoon. Making his prime ministerial debut in the Commons yesterday, Andy Burnham experienced something of a bapt