Thanks Russ for a more temperate response to my comment than perhaps it deserved. I am rather new to this form of discourse (Medium) and indeed contributing via social media. I fear I come with bad habits from brief exposure to other comment platforms where everybody shouts and nobody listens. The invariable response is to turn up the volume. In my response this may have hidden that I am also looking for unity in the party. But I fear that we may be in a pre divorce situation where the respective interests are speaking in separate rooms, ignoring each other as blaming is easier than adjusting to the other. Hence my need personal and probably selfish to launch dissent into the somewhat cosy camaraderie of other comments to your letter. There is no point building a bridge unless there are two sides.

I can make no apology for the term messianic faith. That is what it looks like to me and to others who “don’t get it”. For example much is made of the socialist purity of Corbyn. It doesn’t stand too much scrutiny. He continually and consistently marginalised himself, voting almost consistently against his leadership. I can’t see that as a virtue in a politician taking the Queen’s shilling.

He and Mr McDonnell have made rather intemperate statements about for example the IRA murdering British soldiers and Hezbollah’s perversion of Islam’s claim to be a religion of peace. It is possible to support the aims of dissidents without saluting their wilder and more murderous adherents, our current leadership didn’t. Having done so a leader should find a way to recognise errors (charitably described as youthful) and move beyond them. Our current leader hung up the phone on his radio listeners

I named it New New Labour, because of the somewhat thin promises and thinner definitions of the promised House Beautiful. It’s somewhat ironic but not unexpected that in claiming renewal, the Corbyn project, if that is acceptable, is donning some of Tony Blair’s clothes. As you say we sheltered under that cloak after being soundly beaten in the miner’s strike defeat for the traditional left unions and earlier at Grunwicks which is probably more significant for the tasks we face today. Women, immigrants, on terrible contracts in a pop up industry now long gone. The dejection we felt at being so comprehensively let down by the TUC, underlined the weakness of the tactics we deployed in both. Foot and Benn sprang from the resulting anger but grew like tall weeds on a barren plot only to have their heads cut off. I fear a repeat and hear an echo.

Enough! I risk the volume increase I was trying honestly to avoid. As you say time is pressing and we need a movement big enough to embrace the 50+ union sponsored MPs cluster around the leader and the 170 (I admit just clustered) who have other roots charities etc, as so clearly set out by Mr Goodall in these pages. Please keep bridge building. I suppose in our delicate state we are in a period of needing more “popular front” uniting the disparate rather than the “united front” valuing rectitude over progress.

Thanks and I really mean that