Speaking as a Labour moderate I believed Momentum was going to be an entryist organisation led by tedious old Trots from the 80s that would suck the life out of young activists. I was very wrong Jon Lansman has sent these dinosaurs packing and Mometumites are more integrated into CLPs. These young activists are tireless and now have a taste for the ground war of canvassing as well as leapfrogging Tory social media tactics that proved successful in the 2015 GE. Fast moving demographic change is threatening Tory MPs in the London suburban doughnut and Momentum will keep returning to the streets of Chingford, Croydon and Uxbridge and work those seats as if there is a general election next week. Rumours abound that Boris is about to cut and run on Brexit which is predictable but he now has nothing to lose with Uxbridge up for grabs.

The '12-point Brexit negotiating plan' is an A4 side of truisms. Considering the SNP submitted a 700 page document of intent before the Scottish referendum this not very impressive a year after the EU referendum. You're correct the election doesn’t change the fundamentals of our negotiations May is still going to a knife fight with a marzipan dildo. We know we are in trouble when a man with a bucket on his head had the most insightful analysis in the GE of the pending negotiations; "It will be a shitshow"

The more I see this crazy British Tea Party making up the Brexit camp the more I gravitate toward remain. Dan is sitting at his desk just inventing silly conspiracy theories like his fellow leave campaigner, David Icke.

You might want to ask what tax credit savings are going to be used for, which is Osborne's war chest to introduce income tax cuts in 2019. In other words a tax credit for those who are more likely to vote Tory paid for by those who can at least afford it and are less likely to vote Tory. Osborne is not an economist but a canny political strategist. Except he's under-estimated how deep these cuts are affecting people in marginals. And now he's in danger of looking like a finance minister who can't govern which is a potential hazard for Britain's international confidence.

Do you think the Tories were running a campaign of high minded consensus and intelligent discourse when this 'alarm' (not visceral prejudice or nationalist fear-mongering then?) towards Nicola Sturgeon took root?

Hannan maybe right about the unpleasant tone of many in Labour but its not as if the Conservatives and their press allies won this election through high minded politics. Whether its the fear of the Scottish hoardes coming to steal the money of the English or nasty personal attacks on Ed Miliband this has not been an edifying campaign. Dan Hannan is perfectly entitled to make these criticisms at Labour because he is man who can sit down and have a rational empirical conversation, especially on his pet subject the EU. But can he say that about many of his UKIP and some Tory Eurosceptic allies whose fall back position is dogwhistle prejudice towards Schrodinger's immigrant over here to take your job and scrounge dole money. And not forgetting fat cat Johnny Foreigner in the Commission who thinks about nothing all day but screwing over the British. This in turn produces a visceral reaction from left wingers and liberals of the kind that Hannan describes (and I plead guilty from time to time). I do not wish to see the kind of nasty discourse that has developed in US politics but the rise of nationalist identity politics of the SNP and the British right means they have to take a good look at themselves as much as Hannan suggests Labour should. But here's the flaw, this election has shown that negative campaigning works so don't expect Labour to turn into Jed Bartlett just yet.

But as an optimist I'll leave this article about George McGovern's attendance of Pat Nixon's funeral from shouty Fox News of all people to inspire us all to be a bit classier in future http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/21/george-...