The good old days

Ah, for the labor camps, barbed wire and machine gun towers, midnight knocks on the door, lines for food, clothing and shelter, the nomenclatura;

Czech voters have repudiated their centre-right government’s austerity policies, handing the left, including a resurgent Communist party, a striking victory in local elections that threatens the administration of Petr Necas, prime minister.

Mr Necas's Civic Democrats (ODS) won only 12.3 per cent of the vote in elections which ended on Saturday, about half the vote they took in regional elections four years ago – a sign of increasing voter dissatisfaction with policies of tax rises and spending cuts aimed at driving the deficit to 2.9 per cent of gross domestic product by 2013.

....The largely unreformed communists, heirs of the totalitarian party that ruled Czechoslovakia for more than 40 years, won more than 20 per cent of the vote.