Thread by @cjayanetti

The sheer shock of actions actually having consequences for members of the political class.

There is, I suppose, a question of the precise grounds on which he has been suspended, and whether they can form grounds for a more permanent severance.

After all, Starmer would look ridiculous if he had to back down. Having alienated the left, he’d just alienate everyone else.

As @jamesjohnson252 says, this will define Starmer in the eyes of the public, mostly favourably (‘strong’, ‘decisive’).

You’d have to think there’ll be a left wing breakaway party. But the history of the Socialist Labour Party and Respect bodes very badly for it.

And given a new party’s prospects, you’d have to question how many MPs - and trade unions - would back it. Older corbynite MPs, perhaps - don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Lavery. But younger ones, and the unions, will be thinking of actually influencing a government.

As for the decision to suspend - well, it’s long past time Labour did something big to lance the boil of anti-semitism and make it clear things had changed.

So, as a matter of principle: good. As went Woolas, so goes Corbyn.

And as for Corbyn’s statement, I can only say with some weariness that they were the words of a man I once mistakenly though humble, but who proved to be vain and arrogant over time. No hint of reflection in them.

I think, in the end, Corbyn just did not think he had the capacity to be wrong, or that his opponents had the capacity to be right.

And most things seemed to come down to that in his eyes - him against his opponents. And if they didn’t, like over Brexit, he just washed his hands

Oh and I probably shouldn’t but

I’ll be honest, there’ll be ppl quitting Lab who I respect, and who‘ll be a loss to the party - they provide it with its extra-parliamentary campaigning force, politics and conscience. I totally disagree with their grounds for quitting but they’ll be a loss

But sod the outriders