Chaos theory’s assertion that tiny changes can have dramatic effects is being vindicated with a vengeance in Westminster. If not quite as paltry as a butterfly flapping its wing in the Amazonian rain forest, the creation of the Independent Group seemed a small event. Eight Labour and three Tory MPs joined. Eleven in total. Just 11: despite all the provocations of Brexit and Corbyn. Is that it? I thought when the breakaway began, and filed the groupuscule away under “lost causes”.
As it has turned out, the small difference has made all the difference. Last night the Labour party removed the whip from Chris Williamson, a supporter of the Maduro tyranny in Venezuela and the Cuban dictatorship. Jeremy Corbyn and his office reportedly wanted to keep him; a Labour MP told a political journalist that Corbyn ‘personally intervened to stop the suspension of Williamson.’ You can see why. Williamson’s associations are no worse than the alliances of Jeremy Corbyn or Seumas Milne, Ken Livingstone or George Galloway.
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