Traditional political techniques are no longer working – party splits and Brexit uncertainty are proof

When the rest of the world looks at Britain, it sees a nation whose political system has undergone a collective nervous breakdown since the referendum of 2016

It would be easier to have some faith in the future of democratic politics if so many in the Labour Party hadn’t reacted so sourly to the defection of seven MPs to the new Independent Group.

The tweet from Young Labour is a depressingly typical example of this particular tendency: “Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we’ll keep the red flag flying here.”

If that is Labour’s attitude, no wonder many of those within its ranks are thinking about leaving.

Corbynistas such as John McDonnell demand that MPs and others pledge loyalty to the leader and his platform – something that Jeremy Corbyn himself signally failed to do under the six leaders he has served in parliament.

During the Blair years, so predictable a rebel was Mr Corbyn that the Labour whips used to phone him up simply to confirm that he would, as usual, be voting against the Labour government’s legislation. He was reliable in his unreliability.

Such a deity of dissent as Mr Corbyn should feel some twinge of hypocrisy at seeking such unconditional loyalty from his MPs, the majority of whom have made no secret of their dissatisfaction with him, to the point of passing two motions of no confidence in his leadership.

No matter, after an unexpectedly impressive election campaign in 2017, itself partly a product of the Conservatives’ unbelievably dire one, and with the cult-like devotion of many new party members, Mr Corbyn’s position is secure.

He has turned his shadow cabinet into a mixed-ability class, with stars such as Sir Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry and Angela Rayner on the front bench coexisting with more lacklustre types who aren’t even household names in their own kitchens.

No one outside the Labour leader’s office is content that talents such as Hilary Benn, Stella Creasy and Yvette Cooper are left languishing on the back benches, having to take their best efforts to select committee work and directly to the Brexit process.

It does not augur well for the old party system, based on two broad churches that no longer wish to be broad churches. During the Blair years, there was in Labour a conscious, almost vindictive attitude towards the left. Back in the 1980s, there was something of a similar attitude towards Labour moderates.

Whatever petty policies of exclusion were visited by the party upon its own followers in the past are no excuse for the Leninist doctrine of democratic centralism being imposed on the organisation today.

If Derek Hatton or George Galloway can come into the party, then Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna could have been found the space to remain.

Behind in the polls against the most incompetent government in decades, Labour stands little chance of winning the next election.

Almost a mirror image is the Conservative Party. The old adage that loyalty is the Tories’ secret weapon seems hopelessly dated now. Many activists have adopted some of Labour’s very bad habits – such as the ex-Ukip “purple momentum” attempt to infiltrate Conservative associations to deselect pro-EU Tory MPs.

Ministers and cabinet ministers vie to defy their party leader. She, in turn, lacks the flexibility to fulfil her promise to “reach out” even to the dissidents in her own party, let alone the opposition.

It is fair to add that Theresa May‘s instincts are different to Mr Corbyn’s in one respect: she wishes to keep as many of her people in her party as she possibly can, from Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker to Anna Soubry and Kenneth Clark.

She is no less tribal than Mr Corbyn, but whereas he views the defections from his party as mild disappointments and with brief regrets, she would view secession from her ranks with rather more horror, if not surprise.

The downside with the May way, as we know, is that it has the effect of putting party before country.

From her actions at least, she seems to believe that provided the Tory party emerges from Brexit more or less in one piece, any kind of Brexit is tolerable and justifiable.

When you equate the national interest with the Conservative interest as closely as she and most of her colleagues do, it is not difficult to justify sacrificing the economy, if only you keep yourselves in office.

And so in both major parties we find some of the traditional techniques of balance and management breaking down, and with dire effects on the cohesion of the nation.

When European commissioners, Chinese diplomats or Japanese company executives alike look at Britain, they see a nation whose political system has undergone a collective nervous breakdown since the referendum of 2016.

Whether a new centrist political grouping is the answer – and it could be – there are few other remedies available.

The Liberal Democrats simply lack the scale to offer an alternative government, and many will not forgive them for the tuition fees fiasco.

Perhaps if we took the Brexit issue out of party politics by subjecting it to a free vote based on conscience, and one that had to be in any case subject to a Final Say by the people, we might draw some of this poison out of the system.

Otherwise, we will have many more feverish and chaotic political days ahead.