#LabourPurge is trending on Twitter. To deny a member of another party a vote in your leadership election is one thing, although in the context of Labour’s current situation – all but wiped out in Scotland, outflanked on the centre ground by the Tory’s recent budget – even this seems pretty short-sighted. (Surely the support from Green Party, TUSC and Left Unity members at least would be welcome?) But to deny people who want to actively participate in the party access to the ballot because they hold ‘un-Labour’ values (as defined, on an apparently person-by-person basis, by the party’s top brass) is not only idiotic, but undemocratic. Reports that Labour will ‘remove’ votes after they’ve been cast are nothing short of alarming. We have a name for altering the results of a ballot after it has taken place: it’s called ‘rigging an election’.

Let’s be clear. Those of us interested…