There may be no left to come for

It is becoming a truism that voters apparently like the policies of the Labour Party, but apparently not its leader.

How could people not like the policies when they are designed to protect the most vulnerable and expect all to play their part in society?

Perhaps however what we have not quite factored in is that the most vulnerable have been made the other or scapegoat for society's ills. It has happened gradually, sometimes without us knowing. Parties of different political colours have let it happen, and we have, all too often, stood by on the other side.

The problem with making someone other is that perhaps ever so slowly a process of de-humanisation takes place. It is how fundamentally we get to the deserving and undeserving poor.

This is not a call to vote Labour. It is though a call to reflect on whether we want to be a society that embraces the other and puts the vulnerable at the centre as a matter of justice, in spite of the cost to ourselves.