Labour has been working hard to regain the initiative as the political opposition following its bloodletting on who should be its leader. Having resolved that self indulgent question with the ever popular Corbyn returning with an increased mandate, it finds a country drifting rudderless in a Brexit fog and awaiting with anxiety the onset of a deliberately disruptive Trump Presidency.
Not since the end of WWII has the country had to face uncertainties simultaneously with its greatest ally and its closest trading partner. Thus far the May government seems unable to offer more than fancy rhetoric, resulting in mounting public impatience. The spectacle of two of her cabinet ministers being separately chased grim faced and tight lipped in Whitehall by angry media (Health and Transport) was telling. Daily there is news of terrible disruption on the tubes and Southern Rail, which is causing very great suffering to the life and working patterns of millions of ordinary people. Almost hourly it seems, there is news of some further pressure building in the NHS, in which the deeper you dig the worse it gets; almost every authority within its Byzantine structure warns of mounting crisis.
This extraordinary state of disarray should be an opportunity for the official Opposition to seize control of the political conversation with bold plans and a clear vision befitting a government in waiting with a real chance of winning power. Labour has some sound policies and intelligent positions, yet it is constantly entangled in gaffes and mixed messages which appear to confuse even its own stalwarts. Worse, it trails in the polls (Con 42 Lab 28 according to latest) at a level to which even Michael Foot barely sank and he faced a break-away wing formed into the SDP. This is not good by any measure.
It is not as bad as it might be because now we have fixed term parliaments. Talk of a snap election is a fantasy, because legally (another Cameron blunder?) there is no such thing, unless two thirds of the Commons votes to dissolve itself and turkeys do not vote for Christmas. Failing that May would have to lose a vote of confidence and the alternative, Corbyn, as leader of the next largest party, would have to do the same, before the Queen could lawfully turn out the lights and send them all to the country and their electoral fate. There is one other possibility. Boris pounces and deposes May as leader of the Tories and replaces her as PM. That would hardly help Labour. It might be a calamity.
So Labour has to start getting its act together. That includes the muttering Blairite wing as much as the activists in Momentum. Make no mistake from one who knows about things like this, either they come together with a common message which they all articulate and embrace and in turn support their leadership and each other.
Or voters will scatter them to the four winds.