This morning the world woke up to the news that seven MPs from the British Labour Party, aka The LaBlair Party, resigned because of party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s attitude towards Brexit – and, basically, everything else.

Most of the world couldn’t care less about it, but those of us in the United Kingdom, such as it is for the time being, do care, because, apparently, they are making some sort of stand that Mr Corbyn is not the right kind of leader for the leftist party.

Not the right kind of leader, is he?  This, I fear, may require some of the inimitable Butler analysis – not factually correct, completely misunderstood, free-flowing stream of consciousness nonsense that may or may not make sense at the end of it.

I don’t know whether it’s worth naming all the MPs, but Chuka Umunna is probably the most well-known of them.  This guy was only elected as an MP in 2010, and within 18 months, he was Shadow Business Secretary.  This fellow was/is clearly ambitious; yet when he had the opportunity to go for the top job in the party, in 2015, he withdrew his candidacy after just three days, citing his discomfort with the level of media scrutiny that goes with such things.  Well, you can’t help but think there must be skeletons in his cupboard, can you?

Since that time, 2015, he’s done very little except return to the backbenches, which he did after Jeremy Corbyn won that election.  It’s obvious that he wasn’t happy with Corbyn’s victory.  But it’s taken him three and a half years to get his arse off that bench and into what appears to be the formation of a new party, The Independent Group.

But…see, the problem here is that he was elected as a LaBlair MP (in Streatham, as it goes) with a very slim majority (about 3,500), and now he wants to form his own party; fair enough, but that should trigger a by-election in my humble opinion, but he has told the media that that is not in his plans.

In fact, I’m pretty sure that none of the seven MPs are going to face a by-election based on their new party.  The Independent Group might be a clever name, but those who don’t know them so well might be wondering just what it is they are independent from.  They need a by-election in order to ram down the electorate’s throats what it is they are standing for, or better yet, what it is they are standing against.

But, these people are politicians first; meaning that more important than winning anything for their constituents or their country is looking after themselves.  Dave Prentis, leader of my own union UNISON, said that today’s news was “terrible news” for working people because “split parties don’t win elections.”  There you are.  You can’t put it any simpler than that.

Admittedly, one or two of the new Independent Group have found departure from the Labour Party very difficult indeed; Chuka Umunna isn’t one of them.  Mike Gapes looked like his world had crashed down as he spoke; his stand – not to mention that of one or two of the others – is based on the perceived anti-Semitism that has emanated from the party since Corbyn’s election.

However, it is not simply Corbyn who has been accused of this: according to the BBC, where I get most of my rant sources from, the party has received 673 complaints alleging acts of anti-Semitism by its members.  Ninety-six party members were suspended between April 2018 and January 2019.  That’s astonishing, and really quite grim.

Indeed, some MPs believe the figure of 673 complaints to be a little on the generous side; the number may well be significantly higher.  If that is the case, then as far as I am concerned, the Labour Party might as well be fractured now because there is no chance that they can win the next election, or any in the foreseeable future, and neither should they if they are to build policies based on an anti-Semitic standpoint.

Those who have departed the party on those grounds are doing the right thing, even though it is likely to cost Labour the next election.  But Chuka Umunna isn’t one of them.  He did not cite the party’s anti-Semitic reputation as a reason for his departure.  I think he simply doesn’t like Jeremy Corbyn.  Plus, he wants to be leader of a party that is nowhere near Labour, but isn’t quite Tory, either.  Basically, New Labour reinvented.

I also believe that, despite leaving the party on solid principles, the other MPs who have taken an anti-anti-Semitic stand should also face a by-election, for reasons that I have stated above.  The additional nobility of their cause should not mean that they get a free pass to the next round, so to speak.

If Labour is as anti-Semitic a party as these almost 700 complaints suggest, then they are no party fit to govern this country.  But, that begs the question: what is the alternative?  The Tories?  The Liberal Democrats, God help us.  UKIP?

British politics is f***ed anyway.  The major parties – and some of the minor ones – are fractured, split down the middle, and in most cases it is Europe that’s done it.  Let’s face it, if you’re Labour or Conservative, left or right, you have no alternative in the polls.  Nowhere else you can go.  Perhaps voters ought to form their own coalition(s) and vote for themselves in the next election.  My own view is that any current, or still-living previous MP should not be allowed to stand in the next general election so that we get a completely clean slate in 2022, or whenever it is.  British politics is in total disarray; they have let us down completely, because – whatever party they represent – they all became complacent, and now once again it is the British People who must pay the price. x