Labour leadership: Rebels' strength is their authenticity

The great strength of Labour's rebels is surely their authenticity. Listen to interviews with David Cairns or Joan Ryan and Siobhan McDonagh at the end of last week, and they sound genuinely troubled, sincere in their anxiety about breaking a history of loyalty to the Labour cause. They may not be famous names, but nor are they plotters. Their response to Gordon Brown's miserable premiership is heartfelt. They may shame their party into deposing its leader, where a more calculating rebellion might fail.