Gordon Brown promises huge house building programme

Back in the 1950s there was huge state house building programme afetr Harold Macmillan competed to be more socialist than the Labour Party in hitting a higher target than the Attlee Government could manage. A cheering Tory conference agreed in 1950 agreed a target of 300,000 a year. In the 1960s and 1970s, of course, it continued with the dreaded tower blocks - those monuments of Socialist architecture approved by Tory as well as Labour councils under Tory and Labour Governments. But last year only 375 council homes were built.
Now Gordon Brown is promising a return to the bad old days with a huge building programme. I think the difference is that in this case (thankfully) it is just an annoucment for the media rather than something that will actually happen. Perhaps that is the difference between New Labout and Old Labour.