“Socialism for the 21st Century,” declared Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour Party conference that was, for all its flat, rambling delivery and striking lack of coherent thinking about how to govern modern Britain, rapturously received by his Left-wing followers. Since Mr Corbyn is so proud to declare himself a socialist and commit his party to that doctrine, let us consider what socialism means when it is put into practice in the real world, not merely debated in the North London salons and lecture halls that are Mr Corbyn’s natural habitat.

Socialism kills. It is not necessary to reach back into history to prove that assertion, though the millions killed by Stalin’s Soviet purges and economic failures should never be forgotten when any politician extols the virtues of socialism. Contemporary evidence abounds in Venezuela. Mr Corbyn has lavishly praised the socialist rulers who have murderously ruined its once-healthy economy, a disaster whose cost is borne by the weak and vulnerable the Left claims to champion.