Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
They leave their trenches, going over the top,
While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!

But, no. It begins again. Been and gone the select committee elections and the shadow cabinet elections and the leadership elections. Each of them fuelled by endless barrages of letters and texts and calls and, above all, emails.

Now comes the first salvo of the new election: that for the half dozen places on the PLP’s backbench Parliamentary committee. (more…)