How the Corbyn saga is basically the Stonecutters episode of The Simpsons

British politics right now is a lot like Game Of Thrones, but the chaos in the Labour party probably has a lot more in common with classic Simpsons episode, “Homer The Great”, in which Homer becomes head of a mysterious ancient society.

Let’s look at the parallels (thanks to The Frinkiac for the gifs)

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jeremy.

Jeremy always wanted to be in the Cabinet, but for decades he was told that someone like him would never be welcome at the top level of the Labour party.

He often found himself campaigning against his own party (such as during the Stop The War days) and found himself so far out on the margin that people often forgot he was a party member.

But then, after a catastrophic general election under Ed Miliband, Jeremy saw an opportunity to put his brand of pacifist, socialist politics back into the heart of the Labour party.

The grandees of the party laughed at the very suggestion of running for Labour leader. No way would Crazy Corbyn get any support for a bid!

But somehow, he did manage to get the numbers he needed to appear on the ballot, with help from some MPs who wanted to have a leftwing voice in the leadership. And from people like Dennis Skinner.

The body of the PLP assumed that there was no real chance of Corbyn getting anywhere. After all, they had the whole thing sewn up!

But bloody hell, didn’t Corbyn only go and win the thing! And with an astonishing mandate and all!

Corbyn hoped to usher in a new era of kinder, fairer politics

Although there were questions about whether people like John McDonnell and Seumas Milne might be pushing Corbyn in a different direction.

Meanwhile, the PLP seemed to think that they could just carry on with business as usual

Over the course of the next nine months, the PLP became increasingly frustrated at what they saw as Corbyn’s political incompetence.

But Corbyn had one thing that made him impossible to dislodge from office…

…his enormous mandate.

Also, a massive army of activists who have a tendency to go absolutely radge at anyone who displeases The Leader.

But eventually things came to a head after the EU referendum. The PLP got together and had an open and frank conversation about how to proceed under a leader that they feel to be politically ineffective.

Although losing the entire parliamentary party would normally be enough for a leader to quit, his supporters convinced him to stick with it.

So now there is a leadership challenge in the works, and unless some kind of solution can be found, it seems like there’s a really strong chance that the Labour party will split. Corbyn is likely to win a leadership challenge, so the rebels will have no choice but to form their own party.

Which then would clear the way for Jeremy to build the party he wants.