Labour’s tantrum over Pat McFadden’s ‘toddler terrorists’ question was very revealing

Two points stand out from Pat McFadden’s career-killing question to David Cameron.

‘May I ask the prime minister to reject the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the West do? Does he agree that such an approach risks infantilising the terrorists and treating them like children, when the truth is that they are adults who are entirely responsible for what they do? No one forces them to kill innocent people in Paris or Beirut. Unless we are clear about that, we will fail even to understand the threat we face, let alone confront it and ultimately overcome it.’

The first is that he did not mention Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell or Seumas Milne by name. But their petulant vengeance proved that he did not need to. Second, and more impressive and important than the petty politics of a doomed Labour party, was the precision with which he dissected a mindset that dominates the far left, and extends far beyond it across all parts of the political spectrum.