The fact that Blair won three general elections, granting Labour its most sustained period of government in the modern era, is not just an inconvenient truth.
It is possible that the public, disenchanted with politicians and unaffectionate towards the Tory party, may indeed grant Labour some standing now.
Speaking on the Today programme, Mr Benn praised Mr Corbyn for backing down and granting Labour MPs a free vote and also suggested his stance could change, depending on the motion put forward to MPs on Wednesday.
Underlying this was a factor emphasized by the sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset: that collectivist values inhering in Canadian political culture granted the labour movement a legitimacy it never quite achieved in the more entrepreneurial nation south of the border.
The Conservatives can no longer take for granted that Labour will be with them – as they could under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband – when the Commons votes next year on the renewal of Trident at an estimated cost of upwards of £100bn, over its 30-year lifespan.
We have had decades of successful experience in this regard[ 29, 39, 40], but may have taken for granted that labour union trust would be there.
But we should also recognise how biopolitical production, particularly in the ways it exceeds the bounds of capitalist relations and constantly refers to the common, grants labour increasing autonomy and provides the tools or weapons that could be wielded in a project of liberation.
That process is frustrated by a general slowing of labour-market churn.A pickup in hiring alone is not enough to grant the labour market a clean bill of health, according to this analysis.
