Principles need power to win us a better Britain

It is not hard to imagine that Keir Hardie, in the here and now, might back Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.

However, it is just as easy to believe, like Corbyn’s rival Owen Smith, that Hardie’s heart would still be breaking.

The Scot would recognise – and admire – a left-wing politician of conviction but would be grieving for a powerless party apparently intent on self-immolation.

Because when Hardie climbed out of the mines of Lanarkshire to give a voice to the working men and women of Britain, he knew only winning power could turn that raised voice into better lives.

Very few people, supporters and critics alike, believe Corbyn will ever hold power. Many suspect he does not even want to.

Corbyn is no worse – and in many ways better – than his hapless predecessor. But it is not a ringing endorsement to say he is as electable as Ed Mi liband because Miliband was never electable at all.

If the party was serious about gaining power, they would have defenestrated Miliband before he got anywhere near an election. They didn’t act to get rid of a rotten leader then and history is now being repeated, as t ra gedy and farce simultaneously.

There have been errors in the past, present, and on all sides, that have led Labour to this. If Corbyn is to be blamed then so too is Tony Blair. For every action, there is reaction.

Many of the MPs most loudly demanding his removal share a party but have little else in common with a politician, unapologetically of the left.

However, there are many – MPs, party members, voters – who did back Corbyn, who wanted him to succeed, who believed the country might back a man of principle with policies promising a fairer society.

They are disillusioned and dismayed after 10 months of drift when Corbyn has failed to land a blow that mattered on a Tory party in tatters before going on holiday during the European referendum campaign.

While the party’s civil war would always be abysmal, as Theresa May’s ministers take formation in this bleak Brexit Britain, Labour’s self-harming is an obscenity.

The people of Britain desperately need them to get their act together and, like the SNP, raise their voices in opposition.

It is said some of his supporters, both in parliament and out, are relaxed about Labour splitting, about this great, vital, open-armed party imploding into pieces.

They are, it is said, happy to fuel division, force the issue, and drive their critics out.

If they do, if they bend Labour until it breaks, all of us, however we vote, will lose a voice for decency and a force for good. Hell mend them.

History is now repeating as both tragedy and farce. At the same time