It is almost impossible to keep up with the daily good news stories emerging from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party – yesterday, its Deputy Leader openly assailed its Leader yet again – and during these August dog days this site has come close to giving up trying. There is only so much to be said about its daily diet of court challenges, trotskyist infiltration, thuggery, Twitter idiocy, intimidation, extremism and racism rows. The last was wonderfully captured by the activist who recently tweeted the following from a party meeting in Corbyn’s own constituency: “Meeting now dissolving into an open argument about whether randomly blaming Jews for things is anti-semitic”.
Theresa May will make her first Party Conference speech as leader and Prime Minister this October. There is a good case for her saying nothing at all about Labour. But if she decides a few words are in order, she might reapply her Nasty Party meme of 2002. It did her little good at the time, not much since, and memories of it wouldn’t exactly have helped her had the leadership election gone to a ballot of members (though she would probably have won). But there would be a certain neatness to her doing so. It would bring events nicely full circle. Above all, it would, I’m afraid, be true as matters stand. And will carry on being so until or unless Labour comes to its senses – or splits.