Today, in a highly unprecedented move, the Labour party actually managed to achieve something. It has just signed a deal with a security firm, OCS, for its autumn conference in Liverpool. This is a huge relief to those in the party with a sense of professionalism, like its General Secretary Iain McNicol, who had feared that the whole conference might have to be cancelled, which would be yet another illustration of the terrible, potentially terminal, mess that the party is in.
But McNicol was able to say this afternoon that ‘We look forward to working together on what will be an excellent event’. Excellent for journalists, perhaps, who will be able to harvest endless stories about rows over policies, rows between Corbyn-supporting MPs and those who’ve opposed him, and confrontations between Labour activists and the now-hated Parliamentary Labour Party. Even those who say they are voting for Owen Smith have told his leadership campaign that they are furious with the PLP for causing this row in the first place, which means that security or not, conference is going to be a terribly tense affair.
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