Dear Labour Party

You'll be aware that there is a campaign to get Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot paper for the leadership election. It's all over Twitter and in the national media. Owen Jones, as always, provides an interesting analysis of why Jeremy should at least be on the ballot paper.

You probably know that the campaign isn't being met with universal approval with even the pro Labour Mirror getting a wee sly dig in about Corbyn's political history

Personally, and without taking a 'side' (for once), I think it's important that Jeremy Corbyn finds enough support within the Parliamentary Labour Party to feature in the race. Having enough nominations means that the debate about 'left' and 'right' will happen. More importantly though, it means that the members have some say about the future direction of the party. As things stand at the moment, it's not easy to distinguish between the candidates - apart from Liz Kendall, who seems to be occupying the ground between the tory 'left' and Margaret Thatcher. I may be wrong about that...

The Labour Party has a long and proud history of incorporating a wide range of political opinion within its ranks. There has always been a left wing tradition and there has always been those who lean towards the centre right. I like that - I've never been good at toeing a party line on anything so the 'outside labour' Left groups don't appeal to me. Neil Kinnock nearly closed down the voices of dissent but they are re emerging and they need to be heard.

In many respects, a broad range of opinion makes it hard for the party to show a united front on virtually any issue. That's the curse of the Left I think - we're fabulous at telling our own side that there is only one true path to socialism and then producing in detail the reasons why other left parties aren't left enough.  Sadly, we have 90 million versions of where the path starts and ends so we spend a lot of time outlining the distinctions between our version of the One True Path and the other Not Quite The Right Path or Destination parties.

While we're focusing on the academic 'think ins' about the real, true, indisputable path, those who have no interest in socialism are marching on towards their own glorious future and socialism doesn't feature in that future.

So, back to Jeremy Corbyn and why he should be on the ballot paper. While not wanting to get involved with the usual dull theoretical One True Path discussions, we do need to have a discussion about what Labour is for. Until we know that, we're basically in an argument about who the best manager will be. We need an alternative perspective - one that will challenge all the candidates to be clear about the values that guide them and the  principles and assumptions that underpin them. We need to know where the party is going and who it is representing.

Jeremy Corbyn may not win the vote of the membership. He may not inspire. He may not have what it takes to translate his vision into practical policies. He will make it harder for the party and the other contenders to fiddle with the edges of policy and vision because they will be challenged. He will present an alternative vision of the party and he will give a voice to people who believe that they have been silenced since 1995.

We should be proud of our history of accommodating all voices.