The hard left discovered decades ago that no sensible electorate would ever vote for them. So they changed tactics and launched what they call a "march through the institutions". Little by little, they seize control of the state. Left-wing thinking now dominates the civil service, the NHS, schools, universities, public sector, several police forces, every HR department and all of Labour's back benches. Now the march is complete. And it'll be a disaster for Britain.

At the last general election, Britain was desperate to get the Tories out. Keir Starmer sold himself as the sensible, competent alternative, but voters rightly remained suspicious. Labour won just 33.7% of the vote. Barely one in four adults turned out for them. They were right to be wary. Starmer promised tax rises totalling just £8.5billion, none of them hitting "working people". Then Chancellor Rachel Reeves piled on £66billion, crushing the economy in the process. But that's nowhere near enough for the left. Now Starmer's out, and Burnham's in. The left has won.

You'll never guess what change Fahnbulleh wants. Oh, you did. More tax. Higher National Insurance, higher capital gains tax, wealth taxes and all the rest. The Office for Budget Responsibility has repeatedly warned hiking taxes yet again will wreck the incentive to work and invest, crush growth and blow an even bigger hole in the public finances. The left will do it anyway. It's what they always do.

Here's a good example. What's left of our oil and gas industry after Miliband's lunatic assault pays a marginal tax rate of 78%. That's not enough for Fahnbulleh. She wants even more. Britain's tax burden is already at its highest level outside wartime. Yet the entire conversation on the left is about pushing it even higher. They pretend it'll only hit the wealthy. It won't. Already, 17,000 millionaires have left Britain because they didn't like what Reeves was doing. More will follow.

The left won't care. The rest of us should, because we'll pick up the bill. Our incomes, family homes, savings and investments are all in the firing line as the left lines up a spending spree. And it will never be enough.

Every day, left-leaning think tanks such as the New Economics Foundation, Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Public Policy Research churn out new ideas for taxing, spending and nationalising more. Their moment has come. And they're determined to seize it.

Burnham has already bowed to them over Gaza. He'll bend the knee again and again. It still won't be enough. That's why former Corbynite shadow chancellor John McDonnell, an admirer of Chinese tyrant Chairman Mao, was brimming with tears at Burnham's victory. The left has worked for this moment for years. Now it's finally here. And without a single vote being cast outside of Makerfield.