When thieves fall out...

As the political representatives of the thieves who run our country fall out, we honest people must allow ourselves a smile.

The fissure within our ruling class is between those who would accommodate to the diminished role of our former imperial state through subordination to European corporatism, and those who prefer "free trade" and a subordination instead to our former North American colonies as an unregulated bargain-basement haven for financial capital off the coast of Europe.

Theresa May's attempt to find a compromise between these two positions is falling apart before our eyes.

Perhaps she will survive as Tory leader (for a while) - but if she does that will only be because the Tories conclude that there is no real world alternative candidate who would not be even less successful in reconciling the irreconcilable.

If the Tories could choose a mythical or fictional Leader they might have a chance. St George might mobilise English nationalism - and is as British as Boris Johnson. Mary Poppins has the necessary magical powers - and would certainly be more plausible than Andrea Leadsom. King Alfred the Great could handle setbacks - and would strike a more contemporary figure than Jacob Rees-Mogg.

If, however, the choice of an alternative Leader to take the country over the Brexit abyss has to be made from within today's Parliamentary Conservative Party, the Tories might as well pick at random any 8am drinker in any branch of Wetherspoons.

That - like the argument over Brexit itself - is, fundamentally, their problem.

However, whilst the thieves fall out, the honest people on the side of the working class cannot only smile.

We also need to organise and prepare for every eventuality. We need Labour candidates selected in every constituency so that we are ready for a General Election should the Tories be unable to avoid it.

We need to be ready for a Special Conference to agree policy should there be another referendum - and we need to be ready to oppose the far-right fantasy of Brexit (and to have and win the arguments, including the argument for free movement of labour, with those on "our side" who are not yet persuaded).

We need to step up our engagement with our Party's mass membership so that we can mobilise ourselves swiftly to respond to whatever events confront us as the divisions within our ruling class, expressed in the falling apart of the Tory Government, play themselves out.

But, as the thieves fall out, we honest people can smile.