In a moment of immense unscripted irony, it was announced today that Derek Hatton - Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council during the Trotskyist insurgency of the 1980s - has rejoined the Labour Party. As seven brave moderates stick their heads above the parapet and quit to form The Independent Group in Parliament, Corbyn reaches out to his old pals on the hard left.
For those with long memories, 'Degsy' was associated with the very worst of the excesses in local government 35 years ago and was expelled by Neil Kinnock for his part in the organised infiltration of Labour by the Militant Tendency.
Of course, in the world of the current Labour leadership, he's just a comrade who was hounded out in a 'witch-hunt'. Corbyn was one of the leading lights in the campaign to oppose the expulsions in the first place.
Hatton's reinstatement proves the claim of the so-called 'Magnificent Seven' - led by Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger - that the Labour Party is no longer the party they originally joined. It is now a movement led by fools. Anti-European relics, who have always secretly welcomed Brexit. Anti-Israeli zealots, who have allowed a sickening tide of anti-semitism to take hold.
It was interesting that Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie also highlighted Corbyn's dangerous foreign policy as a reason for the split. His opposition to NATO and seeming willingness to peddle whatever pronouncements come out of Moscow make him completely unsuitable as a potential Prime Minister.
I anticipate that the Independent Group will act as a magnet for other Labour MPs. There was apparently applause for the renegades in tonight's Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, which will have caused a great deal of concern to Corbyn and McDonnell.
Deputy Leader Tom Watson said publicly that others may follow Berger, Umunna, Gapes et al unless the leadership changes direction.
But the leadership is incapable of changing direction.
It pursues only one goal: the installation of a hard-left government committed to nationalisation, a pacifist foreign policy and support for 'socialist' regimes overseas such as Maduro's authoritarian government in Venezuela.
So now, with every crisis provoked by the Labour leadership's incompetence, petty-mindedness or religious fervour, MPs will have a choice. Do they stick around? Or head somewhere the grass is decidedly greener.
Listening to the breakaway MPs, it's clear that what is now a Parliamentary grouping is set to become a fully-fledged party. Of course, the first-past-the-post electoral system is stacked against them. The SDP never made the breakthrough it hoped for in terms of seats in Parliament. But it did achieve something quite profound and remarkable: by getting practically the same level of the popular vote in 1983 as Michael Foot, it forced the Labour Party back towards the mainstream under Kinnock.
The British electorate deserves real choice and, today, we have a sign that it might just be on the horizon. While the Independent Group looks to a different political future, Labour reaches nearly four decades back into the worst of its past.
For those with long memories, 'Degsy' was associated with the very worst of the excesses in local government 35 years ago and was expelled by Neil Kinnock for his part in the organised infiltration of Labour by the Militant Tendency.
Of course, in the world of the current Labour leadership, he's just a comrade who was hounded out in a 'witch-hunt'. Corbyn was one of the leading lights in the campaign to oppose the expulsions in the first place.
Hatton's reinstatement proves the claim of the so-called 'Magnificent Seven' - led by Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger - that the Labour Party is no longer the party they originally joined. It is now a movement led by fools. Anti-European relics, who have always secretly welcomed Brexit. Anti-Israeli zealots, who have allowed a sickening tide of anti-semitism to take hold.
It was interesting that Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie also highlighted Corbyn's dangerous foreign policy as a reason for the split. His opposition to NATO and seeming willingness to peddle whatever pronouncements come out of Moscow make him completely unsuitable as a potential Prime Minister.
I anticipate that the Independent Group will act as a magnet for other Labour MPs. There was apparently applause for the renegades in tonight's Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, which will have caused a great deal of concern to Corbyn and McDonnell.
Deputy Leader Tom Watson said publicly that others may follow Berger, Umunna, Gapes et al unless the leadership changes direction.
But the leadership is incapable of changing direction.
It pursues only one goal: the installation of a hard-left government committed to nationalisation, a pacifist foreign policy and support for 'socialist' regimes overseas such as Maduro's authoritarian government in Venezuela.
So now, with every crisis provoked by the Labour leadership's incompetence, petty-mindedness or religious fervour, MPs will have a choice. Do they stick around? Or head somewhere the grass is decidedly greener.
Listening to the breakaway MPs, it's clear that what is now a Parliamentary grouping is set to become a fully-fledged party. Of course, the first-past-the-post electoral system is stacked against them. The SDP never made the breakthrough it hoped for in terms of seats in Parliament. But it did achieve something quite profound and remarkable: by getting practically the same level of the popular vote in 1983 as Michael Foot, it forced the Labour Party back towards the mainstream under Kinnock.
The British electorate deserves real choice and, today, we have a sign that it might just be on the horizon. While the Independent Group looks to a different political future, Labour reaches nearly four decades back into the worst of its past.
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