I swear the very mention of Thatcher is catnip to some on the left. I wouldn’t say the one line in the piece about her was praise, just an observation about the changes she put in.

But the strategy makes sense: convince the centerists voters who absolutely will vote that Kier is a safe pair of hands. The alternative is appealing to the younger radical voters who may not bother to turn up to the voting booth because they’re unhappy he’s not as ideologically pure as they want him to be.