By the 1980s the sniffy champagne socialists were no longer in charge of British socialism. The leading lights were very real, very blue-collar men like Arthur Scargill, Derek Hatton, and Ken Livingstone. The middle class poseurs like Vanessa Redgrave were just hangers-on.

The real, working class socialists proved even less electable than the ersatz variety, and were ultimately crushed the greengrocer's daughter Margaret Thatcher. It wasn't because they were less likeable than the Hillary-esque Iron Lady - it's because their ideas were nuts and profoundly undemocratic.

The poseurs still exist and cluster in North London, but frankly they're as irrelevant now as they have ever been.