Well don't that damned well beat all. Alun Parry is a Liverpudlian political singer and songwriter. He has just had his application to affiliate to the Labour Party turned down on the grounds that his allegiances are at variance with LP aims and values.

I know Alun Parry well. He is a bloody good songwriter who attacks capitalism, and its attendant ills, relentlessly. He stands up for Palestinians, striking workers, Gay rights, women's rights, migrant workers, travellers, oppressed ethnic minorities, and all the wretched individuals of the earth who get a raw deal from life, just because they happen to be poor or black or the wrong sex, or whatever. In other words, he is exactly the sort of person who a Labour Party, a Labour Party, SHOULD have in its ranks, and would have if it had an ounce of commitment towards the ideals which the founding fathers stood for.

He is not a Labour Party member - in fact he is not a member of any political organisation - but I have never heard him say or sing anything decrying the party, or any of its leading figures.

It is blindingly obvious that the reason why they will not let him affiliate is because they know full well he will vote for Corbyn, and we could never have that. In a free and democratic election, we can't let people vote for someone who might actually rattle a few ivory towers, now can we?

God damn the begrudgers and bureaucrats and careerists and self centred opportunists who have infested the party for the past twenty five years and more.

You can hear some of Alun Parry's work here