THE countdown to next year’s General Election has begun and, at last, voters will have a genuine choice – the starkest for nearly 20 years, I believe.

A year ago, as Barack Obama was about to win the White House, I bemoaned the absence of similar passion in British politics, after years of both big parties pitching on the muddy centre-ground.

Twelve months on, such regrets are history, partly because Gordon Brown has rediscovered social democracy in the wake of the banking collapse, even turning his fire on the City of London he cuddled up to for so long.

Incredibly, Lord Mandelson, arch-priest of New Labour, has thrown himself into trying to build a new nationwide economy – one concerned with making things, not simply making money – out of the ashes of the old one.

However, the main reason for the new political divide is that the recession has tempted David Cameron to peel back his friendly mask to reveal the harsh Thatcher disciple beneath.

I was astonished by the Conservative leader’s speech to his party’s conference last week, which was both breathtakingly rightwing and intellectually bankrupt.

He condemned “big government” no fewer than 15 times, blaming it for everything from the recession to welfare queues, failing schools, sink estates and broken homes.

His rallying cry, as he attacked Labour’s desire for “more government”, was: “Don’t they see? It is more government that got us into this mess.”

But that argument is 100 per cent and 24- carat wrong – as a look back to the near-collapse of capitalism only one year ago should make plain to all.

The “mess” was created by weak governments that let greedy, reckless bankers bring down their house of cards – and it was big government that saved the day, by rescuing the banks, huge spending and printing money.

Now, at the very moment that the failure of hands-off government has been glaringly exposed, Mr Cameron wants a new Thatcherite revolution of a shrunken state and blind faith in the free market.

Of course, Mr Brown’s speech, peppered with expensive promises, ducked the issue of how to pay back Britain’s eye-watering debt. A menu without price-tags, it was called.

But, equally, Mr Cameron’s address a week later had absolutely nothing to say about the recovery – what sort of new jobs we want and how to spread wealth from London.

To be fair, the Tory leader has interesting ideas about devolving power to towns and cities – including those for “executive” mayors – but, primarily, he was Margaret Thatcher in trousers.

Worse, he vowed to save the NHS and SureStart, while planning to take a chainsaw to the government that guarantees them. To coin his favourite phrase, he is taking the public for fools.

If I was a depressed Labour MP, I would – never mind the polls, regardless of the fresh expenses misery – take some comfort from a belief that voters are not that dumb.

AH, but does the left-hand know what the right-hand is doing? Not on council houses, it seems.

Just weeks after town halls were finally allowed to start building them again – after a 20-year gap – Treasury minister Liam Byrne insisted: “Most good councils sell off council houses...”