The mess we inherited” turned out to be one of the most powerful political slogans of all time, and it may be the principal reason that Ed Miliband was metaphorically hung from a lamp post on 7 May. The Tories repeated it day in, day out in the months following their partial election success in 2010, not only as their alibi for the harsh austerity programme they initiated but also as to why Labour could not be trusted with the economy after 2015. The simple message was that Labour neither liked not understood the workings of business, and that’s why it crashed the economy.The Tories were given a free run to poison Labour’s brand because the Opposition distracted itself with a leadership election following Gordon Brown’s resignation. By the time it looked up from in