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NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
Is the Independent Group really a seismic shift?
The lost and the damned: MPs who betrayed their constituents this week by walking out the parties they were elected to support

A WEEK, or so Westminster’s most cliched saying goes, is a long time in politics. This pithy turn of phrase from Harold Wilson is likely to get more than one outing in this weekend’s papers, as commentators seek to trumpet the defections from Labour and the Tories to the new Independent Group of MPs.

“Trumpet” is indeed the best verb, as there is likely to be little in the way of understanding or proper analysis. 

As the Guardian’s Owen Jones argued earlier this week, no demographic has been crying out for this shift like Britain’s national press. And with this to spur them on, the total lack of a popular base is likely to be no barrier to the Independent Group — until they have to face the electorate, at least.

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