IN my lifetime I’ve experienced three versions of socialism; the Clement Attlee version, the Harold Wilson/Jim Callaghan version and the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown version.

As the latter comes to an end I detect that – although very different in many ways – they all have something in common.

As Winston S Churchill once said: “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

I think he was right.

David Lacey, Durham.