Since the early 90s I've had contact with people who ended up being important in all Labour factions, from proto-Blairites to the hardest left. Nothing in that report suprises me. No: they're not all as bad as each other. The right are always more cynical and more sadistic...

They're not all bad people. But they have a contempt for their opponents and for democracy that manifests itself as an ends-justify-means approach that would shock the most hardened Leninist. Yes, there are bullies on the left, and careerists. But it's not the same.

What are those 'ends'? The achievement of minimal social reforms and the protection of their own career interests. In their own minds, they make no distinction between the two and they convince themselves that any threat to one is a threat to the other...

Honestly I think 1 of the weaknesses of Corbynism was that too many of its early operatives had come from outside the Party and really didn't understand how ruthless and uncooperative the right could be in practice. I remember trying to convince Corbyn staffers early on of this.

Not that there is necessarily anything they could have done. The right spent literally 20 years entrenching themselves and rooting out opposition. They suffered many setbacks and detours along the way. The idea that we could reverse the process any quicker was always naive.

The left is still in a much stronger position now that it was 5 years ago and the fact that some report has come out that demonstrates stuff that loads of us always knew anyway doesn't change that one bit. It was always going to take at least a decade to really get anywhere.

Oh and one other thing is that the cynicism of the right means that while they will happily discuss their tactics and ideology even with lefties whom they happen to respect, they will happily & habitually lie to their own base about them. @guardian @BBCNews collude shamefully.