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The division between Labour leaders and Labour left activists has been permanent and fundamental, and has not only concerned issues and policies, but the very purpose of the party. This has often been obscured by a conference rhetoric which the leaders of the Labour Party have brought to artistic perfection; but it has nevertheless weighed heavily upon the party throughout its existence.

The pattern has been absolutely consistent: from the very beginning of the Labour Party’s history, its leaders have assumed the role of dedicated and indefatigable crusaders against what they judged to be ill-informed, stupid, electorally damaging, and in any case unattainable demands and policies, emanating from constituency parties influenced, in Sidney Webb’s famous phrase of 1930, by ‘unrepresentative groups of nonentities dominated by fanatics and cranks and extremists.’