You have to wonder which terrifies the right wing of the Labour party more... that Corbyn will turn out to be unelectable... or that he might actually win votes.

I do hope your optimism is founded, stray (and others). I do hope he can lead - or at least spark - a resurgence in the left. I have my doubts... but they're the kind I'll enjoy seeing proved wrong.

Here in Ireland mainstream politics has all gone a bit weird. The election is next year and everything is very uncertain at the moment with "Independent / Other" being significantly ahead of any mainstream party in all the polls (who knows what the hell that'll mean in terms of policy; let alone in terms of creating a stable coalition).

Sinn Féin are trying to tap into the basic anti-austerity / left-leaning disillusionment driving people away from the large parties; but they still carry too much historical baggage for a lot of voters. They could go a long way towards addressing that by promoting obvious Leader-in-Waiting Mary Lou McDonald into the top job - but I think Adams still feels the cross-border unity of the party is best served by his continued presence.

All of which is something of an extreme tangent and a discussion for another day.

So er yeah... go Corbyn!! If there's an active drive to exclude potential Corbyn voters from the ballot; he's clearly got the Millbank Machine worried.