Frankenstein’s Westmonster

All political parties are a mess: coalitions of people with different beliefs, stitched together — like Frankenstein’s monster — into a body that can grunt coherently, and perhaps even achieve something. Most of the time, these bodies lumber about reasonably effectively, if a little clumsily. But every so often, as now, when the political system is in turmoil, the suturing starts to bulge and everything seems at risk of coming apart.

Such is the case with the Labour party which may soon be torn asunder — or give way to a new grouping called the Co-operative party. There’s a certain degree of logic to this. If Jeremy Corbyn has captured Labour, and looks certain to beat Owen Smith in the current leadership contest, what do the moderates in the parliamentary party do? Some 172 of them have declared no confidence in a leader who appears impossible to dislodge. Some belong to both the Labour party and the Co-operative party — so the moderates could use their Co-op membership to form the new official opposition.

Those involved in organising the mass resignations that triggered Labour’s current leadership contest insist that this is no more than ‘pub chat’.