When momentous political changes like the Labour Party split occur, all views get equal priority

We published as wide a range of opinions on the Labour Party split as we could, lending a louder voice to our ambition to hear a range of views on political issues

It is one of our abiding values that we do not tell our readers how to vote, nor how to think. It wouldn’t work anyway.

No one is perfect, and we have sometimes erred, but we have always tried to allow a plurality of opinions to be heard. This was a founding principle in 1986. When, a few years ago, we renamed our Comment section “Voices” we, so to speak, lent a louder voice to that ambition. For a time we even entertained Nigel Farage as a regular columnist, just as we had Ken Livingstone and now Chuka Umunna.

Which brings us to the launch of the new Independent Group, which, if you were being pernickety you could say was a bit of a contradiction in terms (ie you can’t be a completely independent member of any group).