The Krankies...

In the 'good old days' of Westminster there were two main aka traditional parties, plus a third, the primary purpose of which was the opportunity it provided to register a protest vote, usually, but not exclusively, between general elections.

This 'spare' block in Parliament had its cranks, ideological and regional, but they were never really at the forefront of the proposition, so 'floaters' could do their floaty thing without self-recrimination for indirectly endorsing complete nonsense. You weren't an insurgent, you were like...cross.

The new format which appears to have taken shape over the post-Brexit period resembles that which emerged, albeit briefly, in Spain almost a decade ago, whereby Crank Left and Crank Right appear to have their own dedicated political silos offering the opportunity for something more than a mere temporary tantrum.

The conclusion would almost have to be that Labour is now bollocksed.

Its three main cohesive collective voting blocks — pompous, self-consciously upright metropolitan elites, culturally-marooned white working classes and communities with an imported antediluvian mentality — are now leaking away steadily towards a set of alternative candidates that offer them a credible chance for acting out their distinguishing chips via the various mechanisms of the state.

Labour could dump Starmer, but would likely end up looking like one of the other shrieky newcomers...just with extra baggage.

And all this while the other traditional party, the Tories, is basically still on life support.

All that really remains to be seen is whether, in the context of a general election, the ambitious premium-crank parties will in some way cancel each other out.

The chances are though that 🇬🇧 is heading towards something more like the extremist flip-flop chaos of Spain rather than the (usually) more dignified coalition regimes of say, Germany or Denmark.