Mr Red, if you're the sort who cheers our soldiers off to war and who "just rejoices" when they knock off a few Argies - this being jingoistic mood that took Michael Foot to crushing defeat in 1983 - you will indeed find Corbyn a great disappointment. Crazy as it is, he would rather talk and negotiate than send troops into battle!

On most of his specifics - Trident, rail ownership, progressive taxation etc - public opinion is on Corbyn's side. But he will have to endure much vilification before he wins the leadership race. In part it comes from the Westminster opportunists who have had Labour in its grip since John Smith died in 1974. And just as damaging, it will come from power-at-any-price "leftish" commentators like John Rentoul and Andrew Rawnsley, who would rather their contacts and buddies were chauffeur-driven ministers than footslogging backbenchers.

Even his fiercest critics can't deny that Corbyn will bring sobriety and maturity to the dispatch box. Puerile grandstanding is just not his style. In the unlikely event that he loses, one thing is certain: the anti-Trident, anti-austerity Greens will see a huge rise in their membership.