I write in a Labour heartland. This is a safe Labour seat and has been since its creation. It's changed a lot over the years, but remains (and yes, remain is a key word) very much Labour.
Where am I? Well, let me give you a clue. On my way to the office I popped into Waitrose and picked up some food. Included in my basket was hummus and other vegetarian delights.
I'm in Islington South and Finsbury, seat of shadow cabinet member Emily Thornbury. It's an interesting vantage point from which to view two other seats that were once considered Labour's heartland.
Yesterday's by-election results in Copeland and Stoke were grim for Labour. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling a very special Corbyn-flavoured snake oil. Copeland, a beautiful and bracing coastal and mountain constituency in Cumbria, has been Labour since 1935. No longer. A brilliant, passionate and committed local candidate (who's also a Christian) was defeated by her Conservative challenger. This is not unprecedented, but it is seismic. The last time an incumbent government won a seat from the main opposition party at a by-election, I was two months old. I am about to turn 35. You have to go back much further in history to look for a time when Labour was at a lower ebb. As Jon Cruddas has argued, Labour is in a crisis unmatched since the 1930s, when Christian socialist George Lansbury had to rescue the Party from the brink. More of him in a moment.
In Stoke-on-Trent Central, Labour won, to retain a seat it has held since it was created in 1950. Yet this was not a glorious victory. The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives made gains, as did UKIP – in spite of a calamitous campaign featuring the party's leader Paul Nuttall.
It is important, whichever side of the British political divide we fall on, to recognise that a vibrant and healthy opposition is essential to the functioning and flourishing of our democracy. Some of the worst excesses of the 1997-2010 Labour government were carried out while the opposition Conservatives were in disarray – such as the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Our system requires a coherent and credible opposition to the government. More than that, the Labour Party – an organisation founded more than 100 years ago, with Christian pioneers playing a key role – is an essential institution in the pursuit of the common good for the whole country.
The party, which famously owes more to Methodism than Marx, was formed by a creative collaboration between Trades Unionists, radical reformers and Christian socialists. Anglicans, Catholics and non-conformists built the party and strove to build the New Jerusalem among the dark, satanic mills.
Despite its many, many limitations, some of the UK's greatest achievements were brought about through the Labour Party. Not least among them, of course, was the creation of the NHS – the socialised healthcare system, free at the point of use, that has been the envy of the world. At a time when the NHS is in crisis because of a sustained lack of funding, it is barely comprehensible that Labour would lose a seat to the Conservatives, let alone one where local hospital services are under threat. But that's what happened yesterday.
Any analysis of the woes of Labour which simplifies the problem as being about the leader alone is worthless. Yet Jeremy Corbyn is undoubtedly a part of Labour's horrendous situation. His appeal may be obvious to those down the road from here in his Islington North constituency, but he seems to have little ability to connect with Labour's northern, Scottish and Welsh core.
Corbyn, though, is a symptom as much as a cause. He is caught in a bewildering array of issues. Brexit and its consequences, the rise of bad jobs and underemployment, alongside the threat of automation, the legacy of Blair and Brown – towering but deeply flawed figures... The list goes on.
At times of historic change, such as the tumultuous present, there's a tendency to look back and try to gain some guidance on what might happen next. Some look to the 1980s and the split in Labour between moderates and the hard left. Others look to the 1930s and the similarities to the rise of the far right. While those comparisons can be overblown, there is some mileage in looking to that decade.
Seeing Corbyn's beleaguered leadership, some commentators have compared him to George Lansbury. Lansbury was the leader of the Labour Party between 1932 and 1935, and rebuilt and unified the party after the sell-out of Ramsey MacDonald entering the National Government with the Conservatives. Lansbury, like Corbyn, had little experience of government, was a pacifist and anti-imperialist. This has led to direct comparisons between the two. These are to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Lansbury's radical credentials were burnished by the stunning Poplar Rates Rebellion, when he and his fellow East End councilors were thrown into prison for their support of their constituents. He was an idealist, whose commitment to Christian pacifism eventually made him unable to continue to lead the Labour Party at a time of rampant fascism in Europe.
Having been opposed by Ernest Bevin, Lansbury resigned as leader, taking an honourable exit and putting the good of the party and the country ahead of his personal beliefs, which he never compromised. This great figure of Christian Socialism died in 1940, but his example lives on. The country needs a united, radical and pragmatic opposition. That was the gift of George Lansbury to the Labour Party and the country. A reinvigorated Labour Party emerged in the wake of World War II and began that great task of building the NHS, extending the Welfare State and building the New Jerusalem.
They remember George Lansbury in his east London heartland. Schools, estates and roads are named after him. We would do well to remember him in Islington, Copeland, Stoke and elsewhere. The results in Copeland and Stoke show just how far Labour is from even beginning to address them. There are deeper issues for Labour than its leader, but the crisis is now existential and the time is right for Corbyn to emulate Lansbury and resign for the good of the party and the country.
Follow Andy Walton on Twitter: @waltonandy
