I wrote this over at Slugger a few days ago. On reflection, its too long, but without a lot of editing, I don’t know what to leave out.

It’s about how political parties are largely defined by what constrains them. I don’t think this is understood widely enough.

In Labour’s case, we have the handicap of being a fairly democratic party that has, as a main rival, a party that is more capable of opportunism and pragmatism (i.e. The Conservatives).

The post repeats a lot of themes that run through recent posts here – that good democratic collective action is a great deal harder than most people think.

To defeat the Conservatives, it’s a massive hill to climb, and it gets bigger when you factor in the problems caused by its openness towards the hard left.