Labour politicians sometimes suffer from a deficiency of the eustachian tube: the conduit that connects the nose with the brain. When they smell power their memory goes. This is certainly the case with Jeremy Corbyn when he presents himself as an irenic figure anxious to build unity and keep the Labour coalition intact.

I was a long-standing member of the North Islington Labour party when he was selected in February 1982 and I still bear the scars. Corbyn’s victory was achieved as a result of a relentless campaign involving all strands of the ultra-left.  Local working-class trade unionists were hounded out of the party and zero tolerance shown to anyone of a more moderate opinion. Following Corbyn’s victory, and the debacle of the 1983 general election, the remodeled North Islington Labour party took vicarious pleasure in supporting the miners’ strike. They were comfortable with the working class providing they could keep them at a distance.

No one ever looked forward to going to a meeting of the North Islington Labour party. There was a running fight between two hostile factions that frequently spilled over into aggression: on one occasion police were summoned to calm a situation that had arisen at the annual general meeting of the women’s section.

These factions represented the worst of both sides of the Labour party at the time. The ‘old right’, to pick a convenient label, were organised around the sitting member of parliament Michael O’Halloran. The ‘new Left’ who opposed him, reflecting the circumstances of the time, was a wide coalition of traditional left-of-centre Labour party members, Trotskyist entryists who sniffed an opportunity for a coup, and others of no great allegiance who had lost confidence and patience with O’Halloran. Eventually the new Left won when O’Halloran and many of his supporters defected to the newly formed SDP in 1981. Corbyn had for some time been anointed by the new left faction as O’Halloran’s successor.

Once they took control the new left often behaved in a most unpleasant way and were contemptuous of those who did not share their opinions. They showed them little personal respect. I recall an occasion when an Irish trade unionist spoke against abortion at a meeting. He clearly felt passionately and was evidently struggling to deliver what he had prepared in advance. He deserved to be heard but instead was treated with derision by people who were clearly better educated and more socially confident.

At this time I was working as an economist for the National Board. I believed that Arthur Scargill was inept in his tactics and unwilling to compromise – however his Marxist posturing made him a hero for the ultra-left. Attending Labour party meetings in Islington and hearing the class rhetoric was an awful experience. The strike was an enjoyable experience for those who had nothing at stake. Particularly distressing was to hear my friends in the Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire NUM who had refused to follow Arthur Scargill’s leadership described as ‘scabs’. Moreover, mining, a dangerous and unhealthy occupation, was for ‘other people’s children’. The children of the Islington middle class would work in marketing, publishing and broadcasting while hard graft could be done by others in the north.

Given the fact that the economics were increasingly moving against UK deep-mined coal in the international energy market, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable demise of the industry. There were enormous problems of industrial change emerging and the need to construct social policies to alleviate the impact of these changes and help those worst affected. By failing to address this issue, the Labour party not only gave Margaret Thatcher a short-term victory, it set itself back by a decade.

Opinions will vary on the extent to which Jeremy Corbyn became an effective constituency MP. What is beyond dispute is that, once the left faction had gained control, Islington council rapidly developed an appalling reputation. Ideological statements proved more attractive than the delivery of service; there was a continuous churn of councillors as people left the area or simply got bored; the morale of full-time officials plummeted.

Jeremy may have learned a little but he has forgotten a lot.

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Professor Martyn Sloman was parliamentary agent for North Norfolk in the 2015 general election. His e-book, Labour’s failure and my small part in it: a memoir for my grandchildren, can be accessed free of charge as a download from http://www.martynsloman.co.uk.

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