Heil Milly!

Why does David Miliband want to be Leader of the Labour Party, when he already has a party of his own? Ignored by his courtier media, on Bank Holiday Monday he held a rally at which he commissioned a thousand activists with no loyalty except to him, with no programme except his word, and with a mission to find a thousand more, and so on, and on, and on. Have they uniforms? I wouldn't be surprised. Have they ranks? I doubt it: each is immediately dependent on Milly, as it is so much easier to be in this electronic age than it would have been in the Thirties.

If Milly loses the Labour Leadership, then he will leave Parliament within a year. That could be even earlier if he failed to be elected to the Shadow Cabinet. Neither he, nor anyone who nominated him before John McDonnell pulled out, should be given a look-in. That would clear out almost all of the dead wood from the New Labour years. Jon Cruddas, who had initially nominated Diane Abbott, should be given a place, but he still needs to be called to account for his later moment of madness.

Those who nominated John (49 today, according to Facebook) while not members of the Campaign Group should band together in order to give it a go: cast iron Eurosceptics every one, including Frank Field; Kate Hoey of the Countryside Alliance; Ian Davidson, Co-operative hammer of Scottish separatism, and denouncer of Blairites on the floor of the House as "Maoists and Trotskyists"; and Ronnie Campbell, a pro-life Catholic, and one of the two Labour MPs who are half of all MPs from England's second most rural county, and of whom the other, the Campaign Group's Ian Lavery, also nominated John.

I owe Ian Davidson, a Diane Abbott supporter, an apology for suggesting that he was supporting Ed Balls, having got that one from Ed Balls on the radio. Then again, perhaps he has changed his mind? Luciana Berger rather hilariously appears to have done so, transferring her affections from the older to the younger Miliband in order, she hopes, to give herself a chance of keeping her seat once it has been merged. That tells which way the wind is really blowing, doesn't it?

Speaking of Berger, many of that crowd in the new intake are said to be planning to chance their arms. They already know each other well enough to be able to organise a slate and give it a reasonable chance of success, you see. Bring back grammar schools, comrades. Bring back grammar schools.