Andy McSmith's Diary: The witch-hunters have become the witch-hunted

Jon Lansman wrote a blog defending the peaceful protesters who staged a vigil outside the constituency offices of the Labour MP Stella Creasy

The Corbynite movement Momentum was set up to build on the surge that swept Jeremy Corbyn to the Labour leadership (Getty)

Sooner or later, some group on the far left is going to denounce Jeremy Corbyn as a right-wing sellout. It has not happened yet, but Jon Lansman, founder and director of the Corbynite campaign Momentum, has had the treatment. He wrote a blog defending the peaceful protesters who staged a vigil outside the constituency offices of the Labour MP Stella Creasy, and were wrongly accused of picketing her home and threatening her staff. In it, he made an aside about the “hostile or opportunistic” Nancy Taaffe, from the tiny Socialist Party, who went on the BBC calling upon Labour to deselect Creasy.

Jon Lansman, founder and director of Momentum

This has brought forth an indignant riposte from the Socialist Party. “It is a serious mistake and an outrage for Jon Lansman to echo the sort of accusations that have been levelled at Corbyn’s Labour Party,” they declare. “The Labour right wing call Momentum a rabble and bullies, and now a director of Momentum echoes that and calls Nancy Taaffe hostile. The answer to a witch-hunt is not a witch-hunt.”

This may leave some people confused as to what constitutes a “witch-hunt”. Here is a simple guide. Writing something disobliging about Nancy Taaffe is a witch-hunt. Taking to the airwaves to call for Stella Creasy to be drummed out of political life is not a witch-hunt. OK?

A new Great Leap Forward

John McDonnell’s strange decision to include the thoughts of Chairman Mao in the most important parliamentary speech he has ever made has given rise to a new vein of political humour. David Prescott, son of the former Deputy Prime Minister, is sending out festive greetings plugging his communications company, Commucan. The message consists of a picture of Mao and Zhou Enlai, with the slogan “Wishing you a Maorry Christmas… Put Commucan.com in your Little Red Book for a Great Leap Forward in 2016.”

No hurry to save antiquities

The destruction of ancient artefacts is one of many horror stories coming out of Syria. There is a Unesco convention on the protection of cultural property “in the event of armed conflict”, known as the Hague Convention, which the UK signed on 30 December 1954, but has never incorporated into UK law. When might the Government do so, the Earl of Clancarty asked, in the House of Lords. The minister for intellectual property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, replied: “The Government remains committed to bringing forward legislation to ratify the Hague Convention and accede to its two Protocols at the first opportunity.” After 61 years, the “first opportunity” has been a long time coming.

The perfect post office

The Ministry of Defence has published a list of all the places outside Britain where it maintains post offices. They include South Georgia island, in the South Atlantic, home to “vicious” fur seals and “ghoulish” gentoo penguins who make their nests from losers’ skeletons. There are a couple of scientific observation posts, but no permanent human residents. The nearest settlement is almost 1,000 miles away, on the Falklands. So if, during this Christmas season, you are looking for a post office where you will not have to queue, you know where you can find one.