Jez We Can - Whining Starts

The Labour Party has elected its new leader and deputy leader. That is the easy part. That Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership vote in a landslide is, for many who would rather he had not run at all, more of a problem - well, for them, at least. What the critics will not let drop is that they are not only unhappy, but also that they are not going to stop moaning, which will make for some even more boring punditry than usual.

Why there should be such complaint is strange, when the result is perused: even without those registered supporters that the Tories, and even their most ardent press supporter the Telegraph, were keen to exploit, Corbyn would have won a majority on the first ballot. Hie eventual vote share, at 59.5%, was emphatic, as was the loss of Blairite favourite Liz Kendall, who, had this been a General Election, would have lost her deposit.

This cut no ice with the whingers, and nobody whinges louder about Labour than the Telegraph’s not at all celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges, who in July memorably said “People need to get a grip. Jeremy Corbyn is not going to be elected Labour leader”. Now, all was changed: “How are serious people in Labour possibly meant to unite behind this”. And without the question mark. Again.

Then it was on to the moaning: “Abba tribute band. The leader of the opposition just said that”. Had Yvette Cooper, his preferred candidate, have made that quip, it would have been OK, of course. How about a total non sequitur to round off? “Labour hasn't elected the new Karl Marx. They've elected the Left's Sarah Palin. The man can't even string a coherent sentence together”. He’s more coherent than you, matey.

Elsewhere, the Blairites were bereft, typified by Philip Collins, who has taken the Murdoch shilling to join the increasingly downmarket and partisan Times: “The terrible demise of a once mediocre party”. Good that he’s prepared to own up to mediocrity there. But, as the man said, there was more: “That was a stunningly bad speech. Something I do know a little about. Khan was poor, Watson was worse and Corbyn was terrible”. Whatever.

Any more Blairite carping? John Rentoul is your man: “If 250,000 people have voted for Corbyn, that is ½% of the UK adult population”. Or, put another way, almost twice as many people that voted for Young Dave as Tory leader in 2005. Try again. “Painful to see sensible MPs pretending to be pleased about enthusiasm of new mems & supporters. They are enthusiastically wrong”. Democracy - dontcha hate it?!?!?

But at least, in a reassuringly upmarket corner of Manhattan, there was some forthright stupidity to lighten the mood, as (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch warbled “All decent Labour Party members who liked Tony Blair's centrism - @David_Cameron is much closer to you”. Nothing like being wrong, and consistent with it. And she wasn’t finished: “welcome … from @Conservatives - we are centrists”. Centrists. And Barking.

Someone just won a landslide victory. That’s democracy, people - get over it.