Photo by Don Despain / Alamy Stock Photo Consciously or unconsciously echoing Tony Benn, William Waldegrave correctly identifies “non-Marxist socialism based on Methodism and the cooperative movement” as driving “much of the rise of the Labour Party” (Cover Story, 4 November). He neglects to mention that institutionally Labour drew its strength and development from the trade unions, which have not only bankrolled the party but historically nurtured and provided some outstanding politicians, such as Ernest Bevin and James Callaghan. Trade unions were ignored as critical components of civil society in David Cameron’s “Big Society”, which was supposedly inspired by the...