Being Social...ish

So, the inevitable Jeremy Corbyn win has occurred. He won in every category of Labour member that mattered in the vote. And that didn't include the MPs.

Bear Shits in Woods, Rain Falls in Manchester, etc. It's not the earth shattering headline the papers want. It is, however, the consequences rather than the result that will now echo in the public conscience.

Nearly 40% of the paid up Labour Party didn't vote for him. 80% of MPs didn't back him. A series of party grandees warned against his re-election.

The Labour party, or at least a sizable part of it, now needs to make a decision. It needs to determine whether a lot of high profile people can walk away from the party they have represented - often for decades - with the belief that the general public would elect them under another badge.

With only one fifth of the party members definitely backing their cause.

An awful lot of the people that back a candidate of a party do so because of the party - not the candidate. The leadership issue is a personal one, the General Election a party one. There's been a lot of talk about a new politics - a new party or two - redefining the landscape in the 21st Century.

There are so few actual 'personalities' in politics that straddle party lines thesedays. Dennis Skinner could probably get voted in on reputation alone, but who else?

The "big beasts" of the 80's have largely fallen by the wayside and today's politician is so much more a disposable hero. Would you go to war for Jacob Rees-Mogg? You'd barely go to Mothercare for him.

The powerhouses of the Labour Party boiled down to Owen Smith as a challenger. Was he truly the best on offer? Did they not have a single MP that had a profile that could be classed as 'high'. Sorry, Jim, I don't need a washing machine...

Until a credible candidate appears, the idealistic Corbyn is the leader of Labour. And a sizable part of Labour will have to take that on the chin.

And, given that the previous incumbents since Blair are Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown, the Westminster membership probably shouldn't hold out for a charismatic hero for a while.

Though Nigel Farage is now at a loose end...