LEADERSHIP HAT DOESN’T FIT PROTESTER CORBYN

JEREMY CORBYN, elected Labour leader on a surge of dissatisfaction at the old leadership, the old ways and the continuous compromises of Blair and Brown, presents himself as himself, though he might have done better being someone else.

A perpetual protester (no revolution was valid without Jeremy’s endorsement and his invitation of its leaders to the Commons), he has had to take on the blander mantle of leadership. It doesn’t quite fit.

His appeal is that of an honest man of principle, something young electors like after years of easy promises and low performance. But his leadership gives rise to a basic question: can the principles remain pure, or will they be diluted by the imperatives, and the temptations, of power?

Under Corbyn, Labour politics have descended into yet another struggle for power.

As for those around him, I knew Diane Abbott when, after falling out with Ed Miliband, I joined the supposedly hardLeft Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs — even though I classified myself as soft Left — because it was the only group that still discussed socialist ideas and policies.

With Diane as secretary, it was badly organised. If the revolution ever comes, she will have forgotten to book the room.