It was like when Blair came out during the last General Election campaign... he genuinely believed he would gain votes for Labour. As opposed to - I suspect - driving those on the Labour left further towards Green and those on the Labour right further towards the tories. There is a serious* campaign to get the guy tried as a war criminal ferchristsakes; he is a million miles from the statesmanlike, unifying figure as which he has cast himself.

I still think Corbyn will end up splitting the Labour Party. And while that may well be the best thing for it in the long run; it could also be risky and go terribly wrong with what's remaining of the UK mainstream left splitting into factions as several visions of how to rebuild the party emerge.

Also, at the same time the lack of an effective left wing opposition may well allow the current British government to accelerate further their destruction of the welfare state. I believe this is a crucial period in terms of addressing some serious long-term problems for our culture - globally, as well as here in Western Europe - and it pains me to see these problems being ignored and/or intensified by a political landscape dominated by apologists for predatory capitalism.

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* serious in the sense that a lot of people take it seriously; not in the sense that it might be successful.

Thing is, as I've said already, I actually kind of agree with him. I don't think the New Labour tendency (which - after all - forms the bulk of the Parliamentary Party) can exist within a Corbyn-led party. I watched him on Andrew Marr and came away puzzled (and quite heartened) by just how unashamedly left-wing he really is.

I'm not saying we can expect farm collectivisation to feature in the next Labour manifesto or anything, but he is a long way to the left of Blair and those that followed him. And I don't see them accepting his leadership.

At that point the only real question is whether the split comes in the form of a mass migration of MPs to the Lib Dems (who would probably welcome the colonisation and assimilation with open arms) - or whether they form an official "New Labour Party" - though the costs and logistics of that would far exceed the LibDem colonisation strategy.

What remains of Labour when the right jumps ship might not survive as a significant force in UK politics. Clearly I hope otherwise, but the risk is always there when a movement splits.

Corbyn impressed me more than I expected him to. Which makes me very pessimistic about his chances of mainstream success ;-)