Labour is fighting only 35 seats out of 74 in Shropshire

The Shropshire Star quotes Alan Moseley, leader of the nine-strong Labour group on Shropshire Council:

"We have chosen to concentrate our efforts on those seats where we have a real chance of success.

"We want to make a real effort in those seats where we have got strong support and make a success of it in that way."

The result of this strategy is that Labour is fighting only 35 seats out of 74 in next month's all-out elections to the authority,

This is a reminder of how weak Labour now is in many parts of rural England. And no Liberal Democrat can criticise another party for targeting.

If anything, Labour has been slow to realise the benefits of this strategy in areas where it is thin on the ground.

But its decision does suggest that, in Shropshire at least, the surge in membership that accompanied Jeremy Corbyn's election to the leadership has not meant more activists on the ground.

My suggestion that Corbynism is a form of identity politics stands.