The contrast between headlines of the daily printed press and those shared across social media news feeds is fascinating.

Whilst heartache and bad jokes have flooded the internet since the announcement of boyband One Direction’s impending split, newspapers have been crowded with the continuing disbelief at the now farcical Labour Party leadership contest.

Whereas 1D jokes highlight the irony of the four band members going their own ways, the 4-candidate Labour race, the ensuing infighting, accusations of outsiders “infiltrating” the contest and even talk of a potential split of their own point to one direction, and that’s downward.

If we are to put our faith in the bookmakers, opinion polls and political pundits once more, the so-called “hard-left” candidate Jeremy Corbyn, having come almost from out of nowhere, is all but home and dry.

Joining Corbyn in the leadership race are Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.

Incredibly, only really Corbyn seems to offer a tangible break from the New Labour and Ed Miliband eras.

In the hands of Corbyn and the hard-left, however, Labour grandees have warned that Labour as a party will retreat to becoming a mere pressure group, a protest movement as opposed to a party fit for government.

Vote Corbyn and get old unelectable Labour, they claim.

Yet despite doubts surrounding Corbyn’s background, ideas and capability to lead, the other 3 candidates currently seem entirely unelectable in their own ways.

Burnham, Cooper and Kendall each represent a tired, predictable Labour elite completely removed from the opinions and realities of true ordinary grassroots party members.

They are also without the quality of leadership on offer on the government front benches with the Conservative Party, quite frankly.

No matter who wins the leadership vote next month, the party has already proved itself to be pulling in different directions; no matter who leads will find it incredibly difficult to convince the electorate of their ability to organise and govern effectively.

Whilst the next party leader can lead a review of Labour Party policy, potential campaigns platform and other matters, uniting and leading MPs in the House of Commons and reconciling representatives with Labour’s grassroots may be a different task altogether.

Time will tell whether this is a defining moment for Labour. With the wrong leader, hostilities all round, and even more talk of a split, it may well be a defining moment in British party politics altogether.