They come to praise Jeremy, not to bury him

The Labour leadership race is still only just getting started. No . . . really. It may feel like it’s gone on for longer than the Cold War, but actually we still have seven weeks of this contest left to run. We’re currently in the no-man’s land between the nominations stage, which saw Emily Thornberry just fail to make the cut, and the ballots landing on members’ doormats on February 21. The actual contest doesn’t end until the April 4. We will be more than a quarter of the way through the Brexit transition year before Labour gets a fresh voice in Parliament.