The Labour Party's Self-Multilation Is Stunning

Too few are willing to face up to the reality that the wave of disgraces is one phenomenon, not many: a function, pure and simple, of Mr Corbyn’s leadership. A whole range of looney, self-destructive views and practices have thrived in the party since his win last September because his supporters, his advisers and the man himself have created an environment in which they can do so. His persistent failure to take on anti-Semitism is not some incidental quirk, like a stutter or an esoteric taste in music; it is fundamental to his leadership. The very essence of his politics is inflexibility about this sort of thing; one acquired over decades of brain-desiccating hours spent in lefty talking shops where the same dusty people make the same dusty arguments and everyone agrees with everything else.