Generally the comparison is absurd but in places it worrying touches a nerve. At a time of failing crime New Labour increased police numbers so much that now more people work in the police than did in East Germany (one in every two hundred).

The result has been a loss of freedoms. For protesting against student fees (or even being in the general area) you can now expected to be held in the street without access to food or toilets for many hours.

Or you could end up, like Boris' aide, loosing your job, having to defend yourself in court and being exposed to public ridicule because of an interested in unusual gay sexual practices.

New Labour was an absolute disaster on liberty and until people like Tristram own up to that and address it then the mud will stick. I gave Labour my vote in 1997 and nasty as the current lot are I would be loathe to do so again.

A bit of a pompous piece, Mr Hunt, though I did not go to a top public school like yourself, so forgive my academic presumption.

I mention this because you once wrote a snide article pointing-out Cameron's educational background etc. which I thought was bit on the rich side, (money and humour I suppose), taking into account your own.

Indeed here you go down the route for which you criticise Cameron, with a silly reference to the tea party. Trivial.

Perhaps it was the feeble class thing included in Ed's "superb speech" that Cameron had in mind when mentioning East Germany?

I went to the GDR in the mid 1980's and the holiday party was full of socialists intent on paying pigrimage to the "socialist wall"

The GDR may be despicable to you now, but in the 1980's there were a good many of on the left who were inclined to give it the nod when opposing the dreadful USA, with comrades from the Unions movement regular guests, similar types to the ones who helped Miliband win the Labour leadership.

There are plenty of 50 year olds plus Labour people now running around in their smart New Labour/One Nation Labour suits, who looked and dressed and thought very differently in the 1980's and paid homage to the leaders of the People's Republics, against the wicked imperialist USA.

I don't think that a Conservative needs a lesson on the evils of the GDR from a member of a party that was, at times, a bit light on criticising it.

You must also excuse the confusion even in the present day Labour Party, when Lord "call me Neil " Kinnock and others wax lyrical about Hobsbawm, an apologist for Stalin, quite recently.

Stalin to Ulbricht is a short distance to travel. But unlike Lord Kinnock with Hobsbawm , I think David Cameron did not mean it literally as you perfectley well know, so best for Tristram Hunt to get off his high-horse.

'Call yourself an historian?' The 'Zinoviev' letter won the Tories an election in twenties Britain and the 'Red' smear has always worked wonders for the Conservatives during the twentieth century.
Even with 'new' tacked on to the Labour Party label this virtual re- branding exercise failed to ward off insults linking UK social democrats to a defunct monolithic political system known as the Soviet Union.
Live with it! The old double-edged question - "Do you still beat your wife?" is the equivalent in British political life of - "Are you still a commie?"

Comrade Hedy Lamarr

I am come from working class/Irish traveller stock and grew up during the Thatcher years. I saw Margaret take on the greedy blackmailing unions that Ted Heath had backed away from and she put our Country in order and gave it back some respect on the world stage. The Falklands war was a bonus and I can still remember standing at Portsmouth on the day the fleet returned from the South Atlantic...Job done yeah!
My point is that although David Cameron is a total light weight compared with the blessed Margaret Thatcher he and the Conservatives are still a better bet than Labour and the Liberals. Wake up and smell the cawfee voters, I think they should ditch the suspect Lib/dems and form an alliance with the EDL/BNP or British Infidels and UKIP. Only they can save the country now from a bunch of communists pretending to be socialist.

he might have got away with joking that the last labour government's enthusiasm for id cards and other control freakery was like east germany.

but saying ed miliband's speech is about britain becoming like east germany is just silly, but this is not going to get any more grown up, today we had matthew d'ancona in the telegraph telling us that cameron is going to try and sell himself at the next election as competent.

so when that fails he will have nothing left but insults.

I'm a UKIP supporter and I thought Mr Cameron's observation was a bit over the top as well.

What Miliband actually proposes is to turn us into Greece.

Not ONE mention about the appalling deficit they left this country or the humungeous levels of debt they racked up.

All he did was stand on stage and recite a memorised peech - something any half decent actor can do. His car-crash on the Today Programme the next morning demonstrated his real abilities: he could hardly string a coherent sentence together.

I'm a UKIP supporter and I thought Mr Cameron's observation was a bit over the top as well.

What Miliband actually proposes is to turn us into Greece.

Not ONE mention about the appalling deficit they left this country or the humungeous levels of debt they racked up.

All he did was stand on stage and recite a memorised peech - something any half decent actor can do. His car-crash on the Today Programme the next morning demonstrated his real abilities: he could hardly string a coherent sentence together.

Cameron's never been particularly witty when it comes to stuff like this but now he's about two steps away from sticking his tongue out and squealing about how EdM smells funny. The East Germany comparison's as baffling as his butch comment.