Harriet Harman's grim victory and why it still holds sway in Labour Party

When Labour's Deputy Leader Harriet Harman pushed the through Parliament in 2010, she predicted that the legislation would create "a new social order". She wasn't wrong. Her measure provided rocket fuel for the woke agenda, including the vast expansion of the diversity industry and the triumph of identity politics. And Harman's legacy is felt in another way. It is an extraordinary fact that three key members of the present Cabinet -, Work and Pensions Secretary and, Energy Secretary - all worked for her as researchers. In the 1990s, however, she had another aide who took a very different path. He ended up writing this column.

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In a report published last month, the called for an end to the current ban on asylum seekers working. Such a move, argued the Foundation, would boost the claimants' self-esteem, reduce Government expenditure on asylum support by £4.4billion and raise tax revenues by £880million. "It's a no brainer," said Mark Rowland, the Foundation's Chief Executive, flourishing these curiously specific figures.

Well, I must be a bit short of grey matter because I find the idea deeply worrying. Not only would this measure create a new incentive for migrants to undertake illegal journeys here but it would make it far harder to deport those whose claims are rejected. More importantly, the right to work also inevitably involves the right to welfare, including housing and income support.

The costs of social security are already out of control, not least because of the burden of economic migration. It would be madness to push up the benefits bill even further by conjuring up a new army of claimants.

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With depressing inevitability, more strikes are looming in the public sector, as teachers, nurses and doctors push for higher pay. Their demands are as unjustified as they are unaffordable. But there is one simple way to end such stoppages. That is to remove the immunity that have enjoyed since 1906 from legal claims for damages arising from their actions.

No other organisation or individual has a privilege like this. If unions could be sued, they would soon behave with more responsibility.

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This month 40 years ago, a terrible fire engulfed the football stadium at Bradford City, killing 56 people. It was just one incident in an appalling catalogue of disasters during the second half of the 1980s which involved a horrendous loss of life.

Others included the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry at Zeebrugge, the Kegworth air crash, the King's Cross fire, the Clapham rail crash, and the stadium tragedy, Curmudgeons like to sneer at modern "elf and safety" culture, but we should be grateful that the drive for higher standards has drastically reduced such catastrophes.

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The most romantic moment of last week's football was not Liverpool winning the title yet again but Wrexham gaining promotion to the League Championship, just three years after the club almost went bankrupt.

Taken over by two warm-hearted, visionary Hollywood stars, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, Wrexham has been on an inspirational journey. The next chapter in this wonderful fairy tale could be entry to the Premiership.