Thoughts on the Labour reshuffle: the evidence is clear - this is a far left /Momentum takeover of a party that used to want to govern

Who thought we would miss the consensus of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls?
They at least managed to keep Kevan Jones, Pat McFadden and others on board. This is a Labour party now utterly bent on self destruction.
3 Shadow Ministers including Jones quit the Party front bench yesterday - 1 on live TV - see the BBC Link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35239232

So we have a situation where:
- At a time when the news agenda is dominated by the threat posed to our way of life by angry, murderous Islamist extremists, the shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden was sacked for rejecting the self-loathing idea that the West, rather than the terrorists, is to blame for Isil’s atrocities.
This was how this was interpreted:

"Sacked Shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden says Corbyn told him he was being fired “because of questions I asked about terrorism… following the Paris terrorist attacks”. This is the question McFadden asked:

“Can I ask the Prime Minister to reject the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the West do? Does he agree with me that such an approach risks infantilising the terrorists and treating them as children when the truth is they are adults entirely responsible for what they do. No one forces them to kill innocent people in Paris or Beirut and unless we are clear about that we will fail even to be able to understand the threat we face let alone confront it and ultimately overcome it.”

So, according to McFadden at least, he lost his job because he made a point of refusing to blame the Paris attacks on the West. Corbyn’s people say it was because he was disloyal, which to be fair is not mutually exclusive. The Stop the War takeover over the Labour Party is complete…"

- As North Korea claimed to have detonated its first Hydrogen bomb, Emily Thornberry, who wants Britain unilaterally to give up its nuclear deterrent, was appointed the new shadow defence secretary, replacing Maria Eagle, a supporter of Trident.
- Just in case the direction of travel wasn’t clear, Michael Dugher, one of the last pro-Israel Labour voices, was sacked.
- Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary who backed intervention in Syria, survives, but only because the Labour leader was too weak to remove him.
There is no going back from any of this.
Allister Heaths take on this is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/12085872/No-self-respecting-politician-could-remain-in-Corbyns-shadow-cabinet.html

Huge support for John Woodcock MP in parliament

I do not know John well although I have heard him speak well in the House of Commons. However, he has had the great courage to go public about his battle with depression. I admire him and the others who have led the way on this issue very much: last year my very good friend Charles Walker, MP and North East colleague Kevan Jones, MP, both publicly confessed to having suffered from depression. We need to take the stigma away from being public about what is a disease, which is treatable. A lot of people have suffered depression; I have helped family members who have suffered. I hope John's brave stance will change the public's view that we all have to be strong all of the time. His interview with Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight is very moving.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25226714