Labour party

By the time Jeremy Corbyn got to his feet in today’s debate on action in Syria, the House of Commons was in a fractious mood, with interventions from MPs focusing as much on the Labour party as the issue up for debate. The Labour leader did not find much support from his own side, either, with a number of pro-intervention MPs frowning and muttering as he ploughed on with his speech. Hilary Benn appeared to be grinding his teeth during much of the response. It opened, inevitably, with a man who could quite reasonably be described as a ‘terrorist sympathiser’, given his dealings with the IRA and his ‘friends’ in Hamas, complaining about the Prime Minister’s comments last night.

Today's debate and vote on airstrikes in Syria has already descended into name calling. At last night’s meeting of Conservative MPs, David Cameron reportedly urged his party to vote for the airstrikes because: ‘You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers’ It’s a line that echoes the Tories' prior attacks on Corbyn as a threat to Britain’s national security, as well as and the Prime Minister’s accusation in his conference speech this year that the Labour leader ‘hates’ Britain. On a day which was set to be about ideas and arguments, and not personalities, Cameron's remarks have provided ammunition for Corbyn and his New Politics.

First things first: there is no force in Heaven or on Earth that could induce me to vote for Jeremy Corbyn and his sad brand of sixth-former state socialism. In fact, as someone who believes in freedom and growth, the idea of ever giving my beloved ballot to the illiberal, eco-miserabilist Labour Party, regardless of who’s leading it, fills me with horror. Or is it mirth? It’s one or the other. And yet, despite my Corbynphobia, and my humane desire to see dying Labourism put out of its misery, I increasingly find myself shaking my head in something like fury at Corbyn’s Labour critics. They accuse him of destroying their party. Which is both chronologically and factually wrong.

Tomorrow, Labour will try out something curious during the Commons debate on airstrikes in Syria. The opposition side of the debate will be opened by Jeremy Corbyn, who will argue against airstrikes, and later closed by Hilary Benn, who will make the case for them. This may sound all very dynamic and different but there is a simple and important question ordinary folks will be wondering: what is Labour's policy on Syrian airstrikes?

On Saturday evening, the Eastern Pavilion Banqueting Hall was taken over by Momentum for a curry after a cold and very wet day of campaigning for the Oldham West and Royton by-election. Momentum is a political activist group, founded in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to the Labour leadership. As with most things under his watch, it has received a bad press. Critics in and outside of the Labour party say Momentum is trying to be a party within a party — an effort by hard-left activists to infiltrate Labour as Militant did in the 1980s and make it their own. Everyone I spoke in the Eastern Pavilion vigorously denied this charge, simply telling me they were enthused by Corbyn’s victory in the leadership contest and want to keep the spirit going.