FWIW, these are my thoughts on the current party political shenanigans in Westminster.

I am baffled and surprised by Labour MPs claiming to be baffled, surprised, shocked or upset by the Party’s high profile recruitment of Elphicke and other Conservative MPs who will now join the Labour Party. It seems clear to me that the Party is simply confirming to the people that matter (not the voters who want a change to Tories) that it is resolute in keeping the ‘Party of Order’ (the cross-party ‘moderates’ keeping the UK safe for sensible capitalism) in control. Conservatism is dead! Long live conservatism!. The PoO’s expectation is that by the time things go pear-shaped for a Starmer government, the ‘opposition’ will have regrouped and reformed in to a less toxic, Truss-enomics free vehicle ensuring the continuation of traditional ‘my-turn-ism’ for the two faces of PoO. The fly in the ointment for this strategy is of course the growing strength and appeal of far-right populism in the UK (especially England), as has happened elsewhere in Europe and USA. If this now captures the political ground as the main opposition to Labour there could be trouble ahead, both for the PoO without a viable substitute, and for civil society.

Worst-case? Maybe the emergence of fascism as a popular force again as in the 1930s, but this time with no organised popular resistance from unions and socialists. I can imagine a future in which the liberals, centrists and ‘moderates’ in the PoO who were instrumental in crushing the left face the consequences. “We didnae ken!” they will wail as their trans friends or ‘illegal’ neighbours are marched off to prison or deportation. “Well, ya ken noo” we will say.