In his 1984 book The Rise and Decline of Western Liberalism, my friend Anthony Arblaster, who has died aged 84, sought to bring out some of the “darker and harsher aspects of liberalism”, and added that “the best of liberalism is too good to be left to the liberals” while suggesting that socialism is the surest way to change society for the better.
He lived by that commitment as a journalist on the leftwing Tribune newspaper in the 1960s, and then moved into university life as a lecturer, first in Manchester and then for 34 years in Sheffield.
