On Principle

There was once a tradition about those who were neither properly virtuous nor properly vicious, but trimmed to the prevailing wind: it was said that while such people would certainly never get into Heaven, the gates of Hell too would be barred against them, since beside the likes of them even the damned would be proud. It is to be hoped that some such limbo awaits Huw Merriman who, after several years of serving the party that demonised train drivers for taking industrial action, has now condemned all such uncouth language in the strongest terms and expressed support for the current government's settlement. Even the abject Mel Stride, who recently huffed and puffed against populist rabble-rousing after several years of paid humiliation in the service of a government that did practically nothing else, has at least displayed sufficient integrity to hang around and angle for leadership of the rump. For Merriman, who took the rodentine maritime evacuation option at the general election, a Starmerite sinecure presumably awaits.