Forward, comrades!

IF EVER there were a time for the Labour Party to take a reality check, it would be now. Its share of the vote in May’s general election was its third-worst since 1918. The new Conservative government will soon redraw constituency boundaries to its own advantage and is moving onto Labour’s traditional ground, increasing the minimum wage and wooing northern cities. To win the next election, in 2020, Labour must make deep inroads into Tory England, producing a swing away from the Conservatives on the scale of its landslide victory under Tony Blair in 1997.

Instead the party is hurtling into the wilderness. Of the four candidates for its leadership, vacated by Ed Miliband hours after the election defeat, three—Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Jeremy Corbyn—have concentrated less on broadening its appeal than on telling members what they want to hear. The result has been a lacklustre, self-indulgent contest and a stark illustration of Labour’s leftward shift during Mr Miliband’s five years in charge.