If we alienate and divorce ourselves from less polarized members of our party (of whatever persuasion), we are then establishing ourselves as the core constituency. In so doing we set a dangerous precedent for the next ‘purist’ diatribe which will serve to further granulate the whole. As this process snowballs towards its inevitable end, we are left with an absurd Highlander-like outcome which asserts “There can be only one”.

Any party which does not embrace its disparate parts as a useful continuum is eventually doomed. What price is a “pure” philosophy? The answer is simple – oblivion.