Small wobble in Labour party: no one killed

Don’t be taken in by the media’s hyperbole; by comparison with summers past, this government is not having a particularly rough time. Of course, depending on your media outlet of choice, Mr Blair is said to be ‘reeling’, ‘fuming’ or ‘fumbling’, and having the toughest two weeks of his premiership or the worst crisis since he came to power. But those with long memories and a sense of perspective know that we are light years away from the storms that used to rock Mrs Thatcher’s ship and the raging internal battles that tore apart John Major’s administration.

Compared with previous Labour governments, Mr Blair’s wobbles are a sideshow. Remember the deep sense of crisis and electoral collapse that followed the Bevanite split in 1950