“We are the new political mainstream” bellowed Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour Party conference last week. I was astonished by this audacious bid for the centre ground of British politics.

There is nothing mainstream about spending billions of pounds you do not have. There is nothing mainstream about a fantasy utopian future that will lead to disillusion. There is nothing mainstream about governing society with the belief that the state can do better than individuals, families and communities.

Britain deserves better. But the general election gave Conservatives a rude awakening; something in Corbyn’s message is resonating, particularly with the under-45s.

He has sketched out an alluring alternative vision for what a post-Brexit Britain might look like, and we have a fight on our hands. The