Tonight I'll be attending a reception in Westminster organised by the Opposition Studies Forum which will be addressed by former Opposition Leaders, Michael Howard and Lord Kinnock.
Along with Charles Kennedy, they serve as Honorary Presidents of the OSF, which was founded last year by Nigel Fletcher, who is currently researching a doctoral thesis on Parliamentary Opposition at King's College London.
In advance of tonight's event, the trio have issued statements commending the work of the OSF in studying the politics of opposition. Yet Kinnock's word's - reflecting on Labour's civil war in the 1980s - have an extraordinarily contemporary resonance for his party, given the events of recent days:
“Opposition can be hell. But the lessons you learn whilst you’re there are hugely important – if you learn them. One is that real disabling damage can often come from inside. I think that applies to all oppositions, and it certainly applies to governments. You get a bad cut from the other side, it’ll hurt but you can usually deal with it. Self inflicted wounds are the ones that turn septic most quickly, and where gangrene sets in. We had to stop harming ourselves, learn some discipline and get serious before anyone else would take us seriously, and we should never forget that.”
