By Ramon Menon

Organise and maintain a political Labour Party in PARLIAMENT and the country’. This is the first line of the greatest political party that the UK has ever seen and will ever see. I capitalise those crucial but ever-increasingly forgotten words that so many of my fellow party members seem to forget. We exist to be a force in Parliament, a party that can govern the country based on the rule of law. We are not a protest group or a pressure group, and we have never been. How can you implement one’s principles when one has no power? This doesn’t make me a filthy Blairite or a Red Tory, something that I have far too often been accused of. This makes me a realist. What have we come to when we celebrate gains in vote percentage and seat share, rather than lament not being the government of the day?

I had not laughed harder all Summer than the morning of Theresa May’s electoral catastrophe. Not even Tottenham bottling the Premier League for the second time in a row could match Mrs May’s gross incompetence, a gross incompetence leaving her as the female equivalent of Anthony Eden. What annoyed me, though, were the streams of absolutely fake positivity that polluted my social media. Comments and statuses from fellow lefties of ‘ooh we’ve done it’ or ‘wee the Tories are out’ dominated my news feed. What did we do though? Are the Tories out? Apart from increasing our vote and seat share, we did absolutely nothing productive. From a realistic and correct perspective, nothing has changed. We are not the government. We are the opposition. We have no seat on the Brexit table (and as a leave voter I have zero confidence in May’s Team). Nothing has actually happened other than the Tories having to be backed up by a group of homophobic, misogynistic, anti-Catholic old men.

If we celebrate being in opposition, then I am afraid Labour has no right to exist as a political force. What is the point of celebrating failure? What is the point of celebrating a meaningless vote and seat share increase when it doesn’t lead to a majority? And most importantly, what is the point of celebrating eternal opposition and zero propensity, ability and capability to govern? The far-left likes of Owen Jones, although a very pleasant man he may be, have not helped our cause. Mr Jones, when influential journalists like you spout excrement about false victories and ‘failed centrists’, you incorrectly raise the hope of thousands of lefties across the country. Look at yourself and ask this simple question: Is the Labour Party the government? If the answer is no, then I am afraid this accounts to failure.

Once Jeremy Corbyn or whichever Labour leader has the keys to No. 10 Downing Street, not backed up by the SNP or anyone but with a majority in Parliament, then and only then can fellow Labourites say that we won. This would be what I would call a true victory. This would be the time to celebrate on the streets. This would be the time for the social-media statuses of ‘ooh we’ve done it’. And anything else? Well, anything else is a loss.