“HOPE is the fuel of progress and fear is the prison in which you put yourself,” said Tony Benn. He, like many on the left, believed that social change came from social movements, the organisation of ordinary people, collectivising their energies and interests to fight for a society that provides a fairer representation of their needs and dreams. 

Today it is the quote that comes to define the ideological splinters forming in Labour. Are they so afraid of failure that they are imprisoning themselves in neoliberal politics, rather than fighting it? 

The crisis within Labour isn’t so much one about ideological dogma but, stripped to its bone, a collective psychological fear of trying to become more assertive in the fight against the Tories. The Labour Party has been battered by the media relentlessly, and as such, politicians now fear trying to challenge the status quo set by the Tories.