In the course of the last Labour party conference, senior NS editorial figures were berated by several members of the cabinet. The crime we had committed was the cover of our special issue. It carried the headline “Trouble ahead - the crises facing Gordon Brown”.

We set out our concerns about how a government that appeared fearful of setting a progressive agenda and wanted itself judged on competence alone was taking a huge risk, particularly at a time when the Northern Rock fiasco was kicking off. Our cover coincided with a sharp upturn in Labour’s opinion poll ratings. We predicted that its popularity was fragile, and that Brown needed to do much more to convince.

Our advice was apparently ignored as ministers indulged in their month of hubris about a snap election.