The Kübler-Ross model is a cliche, but the sequence of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance is currently being followed collectively by the Labour party in response to the electorate's rejection of their policies on Europe and immigration.
Opinion-formers such as Owen Jones, Hopi Sen and Mehdi Hasan are in denial about the electorate's verdict on immigration.
Opinion formers such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Bonnie Greer and David Wearing are angry with the electorate for voting the way they did.
Opinion-formers such as George Eaton, Sunder Katwala and Ed Balls think Labour can bargain away objectives to immigration.
Eventually they will all fall silent as they enter the depression stage and grieve for their lost policies (multiculturalism, open door immigration, the European project as it now stands).
Whether they can then bring themselves to the acceptance stage will decide whether Labour will survive as a political force or go the way of the LibDems and shrink to the status of a pressure group writ large.
UKIP are quite capable of replacing Labour as the foremost representative of the working class - just as Labour once replaced the Liberals.
And in UKIP the electorate have at last found a mechanism to express and enforce their views and opinions on immigration.
Opinion-formers such as Owen Jones, Hopi Sen and Mehdi Hasan are in denial about the electorate's verdict on immigration.
Opinion formers such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Bonnie Greer and David Wearing are angry with the electorate for voting the way they did.
Opinion-formers such as George Eaton, Sunder Katwala and Ed Balls think Labour can bargain away objectives to immigration.
Eventually they will all fall silent as they enter the depression stage and grieve for their lost policies (multiculturalism, open door immigration, the European project as it now stands).
Whether they can then bring themselves to the acceptance stage will decide whether Labour will survive as a political force or go the way of the LibDems and shrink to the status of a pressure group writ large.
UKIP are quite capable of replacing Labour as the foremost representative of the working class - just as Labour once replaced the Liberals.
And in UKIP the electorate have at last found a mechanism to express and enforce their views and opinions on immigration.
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