Labour’s Cold War – the allure of winning is what’s keeping Labour together

That the Labour Party is united in opposition has become an established truism. At first, it was repeated over and over by senior party figures during the leadership contest and then following the defeat of Mili-D by Mili-E. It was true, sure, but you weren’t sure how. But over time, as the big bust up never quite happened, the party settled into a new rhythm of opposition, and it became a fact of Labour Party life.

This is something that the Labour Party is incredibly pleased with itself about. Because deep down in the muscle memory of both activist and policy wink alike, we know that divided party’s don’t win elections. Whenever party unity is discussed – and this conference is no different – the ying of “we cannot afford to be divided”, is always followed by the yang of “like we were in the eighties”. That lost decade for Labour still haunts the party. It scares it into unity and keeps division under lock and key.

But it doesn’t eliminate it.

It’s true to say that a party that is united and unified stands a far better chance of winning an election. But the spectre of winning the election can also create a unity of its own – or at least harden that unity and inure it against easy collapse.

The Labour Party at the moment feels almost like the American city of Centralia, where things may look ok on the surface, but there’s a raging fire below that threatens the calm and comfortable edifice. Unity begets winning. The allure of winning begets unity. But it’s not hard to imagine what might happen we’re Labour and Miliband to lose in 2015. My guess is that the fire would burst through to the surface, the proxy wars become open warfare, and we’re out of government until 2025.

You don’t have to go far at conference to find the kind of issues which could easily blow up into full scale warfare. They have proxies at the moment. Certain terms and people have become a coda in certain circles – Ken Livingstone, Progress, 5 million votes, the unions – all are used by one group or another to whack another. A proxy war – the Labour Party is South East Asia, and the Cold War rumbles on. Thankfully no-one has yet threatened a nuclear option. There is no Cuban Missile Crisis looming. We are united. Because we must be.

We are united – because we must be.

And although a phoney and self interested unity isn’t massively inspiring – I don’t have a huge problem with it. Because it’s far better than being out of power for 15 years. For the people who needs Labour the most, that’s an indulgence that’s unthinkable. And also, because I’m fairly convinced that this is the only sort of unity the modern political party is capable of.