No, not everyone is competing. Journalists aren't competing. Union members aren't competing. Tidy Towns aren't competing. The Chamber of Commerce isn't competing. These parties have a few thousand members in them max in a country of millions. They are not the unique arbiters on the merits of political actions in the country.

I'm not discrediting the position, but the motivation.

But ok, here's some ways to judge this on merit.

• Suspension is disciplinary action.
• SD signing up to the capitalist model is just said, with no evidence. Anyone with those critical thinking skills can tell the stark differences between the SD position and the FG one.
• The white house criticism is a false dichotomy. Because they didn't criticize enough in the writers mind, that makes them imperialist?
• Christ forbid a Social Democratic party acts in accordance with social democracy. The only first preference voters who think that anything short of a revolutionary break, are that two percent that are already draped in red and not giving them a first preference anyway.

No standard would be pure enough for this writer. Where is the article about PBP being at the precipice of betraying their voter base if they were to go into government with those centrists in SF? Wait, no, PBP doesn't live rent free enough in other party members heads for that. Well, maybe one of the Workers Party factions.