The man's right: it's all in the past (7)
I believe the answer is:
history
'it's all in the past' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'the man's right' is the wordplay.
'the man's' becomes 'his' (belonging to a man).
'right' becomes 'tory' (Tory can mean Conservative or right-wing).
'his'+'tory'='HISTORY'
(Other definitions for history that I've seen before include "Old record" , "'... repeats itself'" , "Time passed" , "Background" , "Account of past events" .)