Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party this weekend decided to turn its annual convention (known as "conference" in Britain) into a circus of absurdity.

With an election expected within the coming months, and with Labour trailing the Conservatives by around 7-10 points in the polls, this circus won't be remembered fondly by party officials with brains. So it's perhaps fortunate then that the brains seem to have departed this once-proud party.

The weekend started off with a failed effort to purge Labour's Deputy Leader Tom Watson. Despised by Corbyn's far-left allies for his moderate stance and angry repudiation of party anti-Semites, Watson has had a target on his back for the past two years. And this latest effort to destroy him, via a conference motion, was orchestrated by Jan Lansman, head of the pro-Corbyn Momentum Group.

The attempt failed. Popular with Labour parliamentarians, Watson found supporters rallying to his side. The motion was withdrawn. Yet this extreme silliness was only the start to a long weekend of it. The Labour far-left then turned the conference's attention to bold motions to change the party's policy platform.

Note that this conference was supposed to build public support for the party, yet the vast majority of motions were fanatical left-wing wish-list items. Labour List helpfully listed all the motions submitted. And while some were passed and others rejected, the tabled ideas speak to a party that makes Bernie Sanders look conservative.

There was an authoritarian motion to close private schools and "seize their endowments, investments and properties ... to be redistributed democratically and fairly across the country’s educational institutions." There's the plan to "create new legislation giving trade unions unrestricted access to the workplace." We also saw a much vaunted Labour "Green New Deal" that would end Britain's much needed airport expansion.

Want more?

How about the business-killing, inefficiency-promoting motion to "make business’s fully accountable before making redundancies by presenting a strong business case that will be fully scrutinized before making redundancies." The motion did not explain who would be responsible for scrutinizing these decisions. There was the plan for companies with more than 250 employees to be forced into transferring 1% of their ownership shares to workers every year. Note that this is on top of the increased business taxes Labour intends to charge. As part of this ownership, workers would be paid dividends of up to approximately $620 per year. Oh, and "any surplus of dividend over the agreed cap would be paid to government to set up a National Wealth fund."

Continuing with its adventure in economic wonderland, one Labour motion appeared to seek actual economic degrowth. It argued that "Labour should go beyond the pledge to introduce four new public holidays and commit to setting out a plan to achieve a standard four day or 32 hour gross week with no loss of pay." How is this compatible with Britain's economic prosperity in a hyper-competitive global economy?

Still, the list rumbled on.

A Marxist motion called for the "Nationalization of all land belonging to the landed gentry, wealthy individuals and major private companies and corporations." It adds with a call for nationalization "under democratic workers control and without compensation except where it would have a direct impact on the working class — of the major construction companies, big banks, insurance and finance companies, and building societies." This is a war cry for state-sanctioned thievery.

Another motion sought to end privatization services in the National Health Service. This is the purest example of Labour's fanatical hatred for private industry, even where it serves a manifest public good. The motion, if ever enacted, would force patients to suffer longer waits for care.

I could go on and on, but let's end on a widely supported foreign policy motion which proposes banning arms sales to Israel. An odd motion, you might say, for a party determined to claim it isn't antisemitic.

Then again, Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party is very odd.