But while it’s distressing to be unfairly accused on Facebook of being a Trot or entryist, it’s wilful blindness to suggest equivalence between that and the sort of thing that leaves Labour MPs needing police protection. If you can see rightwing hate speech for what it is – fertile earth in which terrifying things grow – then don’t make excuses for what Shirley Williams once called “fascism of the left”. If you can’t defend your corner without resorting to talk of vermin, filth and “blood on your hands”, then something is wrong with your corner.
And yes, what’s happening to Corbyn is cruel. But it’s what happens to leaders in the end stages. Having watched close up the downfalls of over half a dozen party leaders, I never failed to feel sorry for them on a personal level, however deserved their fate. Charles Kennedy, hands shaking, as his alcoholism was brutally exposed to the world; Iain Duncan Smith fighting tears as people in his own office smeared his wife to force him out; Gordon Brown’s bewildered-looking little boys, clutching his hand as they left their home in Downing Street. There is always betrayal, crushing rejection, rough justice – although usually behind closed doors, not laid out in resignation letters.
