"Factional nutters of the world unite!"

The i newspaper quotes a "senior Labour figure" describing anyone who opposes austerity as "a factional nutter". The privileged Westminster elite have a choice. They can just ignore the attacks on the poor. In abstaining on the Welfare cuts that is exactly what they have done.

Andy Burnham excuses this behaviour by saying that he had "cabinet responsibility" and could not vote against a decision of the shadow cabinet. In 1951 a young man called Harold Wilson was faced with a similar dilemma. He chose to resign from the cabinet rather than support an attack by Gaitskell on the NHS. To fall lower in the test than Harold Wilson is not a good start for a would-be leader.

The poor do not have a choice. The disabled do not have a choice. Public sector workers do not have a choice. They either oppose the politics of austerity or they let a government of, by and for the millionaires trample all over them.

So why didn't they flock to Labour in the election? Because Labour, Tory and Liberal were all offering similar flavours of austerity. 

Mark Steel satirises the attitude of the right wing towards new Labour Party members - they are horrified that people will join Labour to vote for socialism.

Whatever the outcome of the leadership election, the fight against austerity will continue. The trade unions will be in the front line of that fight because they have no choice. 

There is a lobby of the TUC on 13th September. It is time for the TUC to get off its knees. "factional nutters" of the world unite!

The rally will begin at 1PM on Sunday 13 September in the Charlotte Room of the Grand Hotel, 97-99 King’s Road, Brighton, BN1 2FW.