Len McCluskey on the election: "The whingers and whiners say we didn't win. I say we

[Burney]

Its very much part of the game. I like the fact that party retains a conscience and an eye for its history. It is of course very frustrating to have such muppets in charge.

There's an eye for history as you put it, and then there's misty-eyed nostalgia for a period of utter political impotence and widespread failure as a political party. The fact that people like Mason can even express a sentiment like that surely tells you they're more interested in ideologically-pure opposition than in gaining power and doing things.

And that's the real problem with seeing 2017 as a victory, of course. It sets a limit on your ambitions and tells everyone you don't ever really expect to actually win.