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Sunday 5 August 2018

'For 40 years I’ve stayed with the party, dark days and all. Why am I now on the brink of leaving?'

This Guardian piece https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/04/fiona-miller-labour-membership-corbyn-brexit by Fiona Millar (note that The Guardian link spells Millar as Miller, nothing changes at The Grauniad) doesn't impress me with Ms Millar's fine words and delicate sensibilities, here's an extract:

'The shockingly badly handled antisemitism row has exposed yet again the nasty, cultish, sectarian, "with us or against us" streak in Corbyn's Labour that sits ill with the party's longstanding, comradely tolerance of difference, which included Corbyn's numerous Commons rebellions.

A short tweet on the subject of my membership dilemma early this week elicited the usual "piss off then" response from supporters of the current leadership. Labour MP Ben Bradshaw shot back: "Don't leave – that is what they want." But what have we come to, supporting a party that actively wants members to leave and appears happy to deter potential voters? Elections are usually won by winning over people who previously didn't agree with you, not by displacing those who did.

The turmoil of the past few weeks – much of which could easily have been avoided by a swift admission (or at least in Friday's Guardian article) that it was a mistake not to adopt the internationally recognised definition of antisemitism – has also exposed something many of us fear. That Corbyn is completely unsuited to being prime minister.

It is not just the people he surrounds himself with, several of whom were not even in the party when he became leader. It's that he appears to be unable to hear opposing arguments or seek compromise, and is so sanctimoniously sure of himself that he is prepared to countenance possible terminal damage to the party's fortunes. Why should his leadership of the country be any different?'

A leader she describes as 'nasty, cultish, sectarian', a party that's been partly taken over by entryists, a leader who she says 'appears to be unable to hear opposing arguments or seek compromise, and is so sanctimoniously sure of himself', a party that is so obsessed by anti-Israel that it can't recognise facts but bearing all that in mind Fiona Millar can't quite bring herself to leave the Labour Party, what does that say about her? 

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