The hard left is on the warpath. Chuka umunna better watch out. | thearticle

I need to start this column with an admission. I am feeling very low as, a few days ago, I had a fantastic idea for this week. It was, by my own admission, a fairly obvious comparison. One

of embattled leaders, surrounded on all sides by hostile politicians calling for them to step aside, an angry public, under pressure from overbearing, bullying neighbouring powers, and with

supplies running low. Yes, the concept of ‘Mayduro’ was simple. But it was also, I thought, rather good. So good, in fact, that I started writing this week’s column on the subject of this

unfortunate Presidente that very evening. So good, I started creating a raft of other figures to feature in this turbulent tale, from local cartel boss Pablo Onasanyabar, to a communist

insurgent group called Las Corbynistas at war in the jungle with far-right paramilitaries led by the shady Nigel FARCrage. Of course I was mixing my metaphors, but who cared? I felt alive,

and was wondering how many weeks I could tease the idea out. Sadly, it was so good, that a cartoonist at the Times had exactly the same idea, and published a caricature of the wretched

creature slap bang in the middle of the comment section, 24 hours before this column was due. Though Mayduro would tell you otherwise, you can’t always have it your own way. And so, instead,

I must scramble around for something else vaguely exciting to write about. There is some good news, though: after roughly 438 days, January has finally come to an end. It’s a long, drawn

out month is January, made ever more tiresome by the lack of vitamin D, alcohol or cash that accompanies it. But finally, we can all kick back and celebrate. Streatham Labour Party has been

doing just that. Last night, they voted to change the process by which they vote in monthly meetings, switching from a ‘general committee delegate’ system, to an ‘all-member meeting’ one.

This may sound dry and technical. That’s often the way with the left; use such terms of logic-bending tedium that people you don’t like pass out in the aisles, and you can do whatever you

want with them. But this is the overall idea: under the general committee system, only delegates of local party branches and unions at meetings were allowed to vote. Now, every paid-up

member can, provided they show up. Why is this significant? Well, for a start, it means that Streatham Labour has just become a far more democratic entity, rather than the gerrymandered

beast it was before. But what’s more interesting is that it now makes it easier for them to cast out their current MP, one Chuka Umunna. There’s something odd about seeing white middle-class

socialists leaping for joy at the news that they will soon be able to deselect one of the most accomplished and prominent ethnic minority MP’s in this country’s history. A lot of people who

followed the event were dismayed, knowing what is likely to follow: a Momentum-backed takeover of the local party apparatus, Umunna’s deselection and, in time, a Corbynista MP in a safe

Labour seat. But ‘Blairites’ as the Corbynistas call them have only themselves to blame. For Momentum, read Brexit. The hard left of Labour is not a bunch I want to see in power, but they

are cut from the same cloth as many people who voted to leave the EU: they have been systematically marginalised, ignored and, where possible, removed from the mainstream by centrists. And

that, and a refusal to engage with them, is exactly the same as happened to eurosceptics. Those that grumble betray undemocratic sentiments. Had they been prepared to be more tolerant and

inclusive of the left in the past, it’s entirely possible they wouldn’t be in their current position of strength. Engaged in open forums, extremist ideas are easier to pin down, isolate and

defeat, whereas, when tucked away in the shadows, it is easier for them to ferment and grow unchallenged. That they have leapt on the opportunity to take control shouldn’t be surprising, and

should be another lesson to the likes of Umunna, who, as an advocate of a ‘people’s vote’ with the expressed intention of keeping the country in an unaccountable, undemocratic bloc, now

faces a battle for his political future. As Presidente Mayduro can now attest, never write-off or ignore the people below you. If you hold your head up too high in the clouds, you won’t see

what’s happening on the ground when la revolucion finally comes.