Mick Hartley

Nick Cohen on Corbyn's Labour, where those MPs most likely to be sacrificed in the name of ideological purity and commitment to the Corbyn Vision happen to be – and of course it's pure chance – minorities of one kind or another. Welcome to Jeremy's "kinder politics":

The Daily Mail might have compiled the far left’s hitlist of Labour MPs. Seven of its apparent deselection targets are women: Angela Eagle, Jess Phillips, Stella Creasy, Louise Ellman, Anna Turley, Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth. Of these, Angela Eagle is an out lesbian and Louise Ellman, Ruth Smeeth and Luciana Berger are Jewish. Most are young by the standards of politicians and nasty old men have always enjoyed humiliating young women with ideas of their own.

The Corbyn gun club does not only have women at the end of its firing range. A list of MPs Jeremy Corbyn claimed had been abusive towards him included many men. But when Labour activists talk of the men most likely to be deselected the list narrows to three: Neil Coyle, Wes Streeting and Peter Kyle. Wes Streeting and Peter Kyle are, since you mention it, gay.

Should you mention it? There is a case for arguing you should forget about identity politics. A division as old as the foundation of the “left” on the benches of the national assembly of revolutionary France now tears Labour apart: the division between Girondins and Jacobins, reformists and revolutionaries, social democrats and communists. Gender and ethnicity seem irrelevant. Either you are for “Jeremy” – as his supporters insist on calling their Big Daddy – or against his revolution, whatever that might be.

Yet if you believe people who call themselves left wing, gender and ethnicity have never been more relevant. They celebrate diversity, count the number of women in senior positions and rage against racism and male privilege. Given their complicity with Corbyn, I do not think they will be able to rage against the patriarchy in future without having their hypocrisy thrown in their faces….

From the Jacobins onwards, women’s rights and every other right have been subjugated to the cause of the revolution. On the rare occasions when revolution has come, it has, as a result of that subjugation, created societies that were worse than what went before.