Parallels with the 1980s are always front of mind with @UKLabour's predicament. When Kinnock took over in 1983, he had broad support from sections of the left, but he soon ran into conflict with the hardliners. The media labelled them as the 'loony left'. 1/20
2/20 This notorious faction had a strong foothold in local government - particularly in London (Ken Livingstone's GLC, Ted Knight's Lambeth etc) - and pursued policies that would be instantly familiar to young Corbynistas now.
3/20 The formula was opposition to all cuts (the word for austerity in the 80s) to the point of defying the law; opposition to nuclear weapons; support for liberation struggles; for leftist regimes around the world; an obsession with Ireland, Palestine and socialist Nicaragua.
4/20 Although Kinnock was of the left, he was not of *this* left. His politics were rooted in the working-class traditions of Welsh coalminers. Decency, solidarity, the helping hand. Common sense progress towards socialism. State planning and intervention. Community.
5/20 The trendy left was cosmopolitan, radical and confrontational in its politics. As a teenager, I was very much attracted to it. But it wasn't a world of miners. It was a milieu of social workers, local government officers, teachers and students.
6/20 Inevitably, these two strands of political thought clashed constantly in the early-mid 80s. And into the mix we need to throw a third strand: hardline trade unionists influenced by the politics of communism and industrial conflict. Arthur Scargill of the NUM, for instance.
7/20 Kinnock knew that the miners' strike of 1984-5 was doomed to failure, as well as the printers' strike at Wapping in the following year. He had to be seen to support them, but knew that strategically they were disastrous for Labour.
8/20 Naturally, the urban leftists of the era (the Livingstones and Corbyns) revelled in the industrial disputes, which they saw as part of an extra-parliamentary crusade against Thatcher. And they continued to challenge Kinnock throughout the period.
9/20 It's significant that Kinnock's first big foray against the hard left wasn't against the cool Sandinista-supporting, bomb-banning left of London though. It was an attack on Militant in Liverpool.
10/20 Militant were Trotskyist infiltrators, who'd managed to get a couple of their clan elected as MPs and who gained effective control - albeit from a minority position - of Liverpool City Council. They were organised with the precision and ruthlessness of a religious movement.
11/20 The reason Kinnock went after Militant is that they were demonstrably a party within a party and had caused chaos and embarrassment in a major city. They were identifiable. And membership of the Revolutionary Socialist League was clearly incompatible with Labour membership.
12/20 Corbyn and his fellow travellers on the hard left joined the fight against the 'witch-hunt' of Militant. It was a period in which expulsions were bitterly contested. Slowly, but surely, however, democracy won out over Marxism.
13/20 The significance of this stroll through ancient history? Well, Kinnock never really managed to confront the Corbynite left in the same way that he took on the Militant. There were constant skirmishes. It was a war of attrition.
14/20 Even in the early 90s, when I chaired what is now Keir Starmer's CLP in central London, we were still fighting running battles with leftists. It wasn't until the ascendancy of Blair that they finally went into hibernation for 20 years.
15/20 Starmer needs to take these people on. There are now few organised Trotskyists in Labour, but there *is* effectively a party within a party. It's called @PeoplesMomentum and its whole existence is bound up with the resurgence of the hard left in 2015.
16/20 Many of the prominent people in the past few years were hibernators from the early 80s. Not least Corbyn himself, along with McDonnell, Abbott and Lansman. Quietly biding their time. Waiting for a moment of opportunity they hardly dared believe would ever arrive.
17/20 Although these well-known figures have officially passed their political sell-by dates, they have raised new generations of activists schooled in the same ideology. These people rail against the sacking of RLB and condemn Starmer for rubbishing plans to 'defund' the police.
18/20 They are activists and officers in constituency parties. They are prominent in some trade unions. They are local councillors. They are MPs. It may be that Starmer plans to play the long game and deal with them later. But there are dangers inherent in that strategy.
19/20 The hard left will snipe and criticise and condemn and protest. And as long as they do, it's almost impossible for Labour's poll ratings to match those of its newly-elected leader. The public will be reminded constantly of the past. And the Tories will be handed a gift.
20/20 According to reports, the EHRC report is on people's desks now and being studied in some detail. Could this be a catalyst for the reshaping of Labour and a clean break with the disaster of the Corbyn years? Let's hope so. As the UK needs an opposition ready to govern.
