If Jeremy Corbyn ever allows himself a glance at the detested MSM, the mainstream media, then he should be pleased today. Of course the overwhelmingly Tory press, owned by a handful of zillionaires, hates everything he stands for. Of course they slam him all over the place – especially for promising to implement David Cameron’s Leveson 2 to give citizens legal protection from the media’s worst intrusions.

But see how almost every rightwing editorial and commentator warns the Tories that Labour has the high ground in ideas, dynamism and popular appeal. Corbynism is shifting the ground beneath the Tories’ feet and they sound knee-knocking scared.

First, here’s the ritual punch-bagging. The Telegraph’s leader writhes furiously: “Entrepreneurs would leave the country or close down their businesses and put thousands out of work … Yes, everyone will be equal, equally poor. We know this because wherever Mr Corbyn’s brand of socialism has been tried, calamity has been the result. Look at Venezuela …” Corbyn would threaten the fundamentals of liberal democracy itself, says Theresa May’s former adviser Nick Timothy in the same paper, ending ominously: “We cannot say we have not been warned.”

“Labour would ruin us all” is the Express’s editorial headline. The Mail’s leader says, “As any realist can see, his programme of Marxist economics, class warfare and unfettered union power is a recipe for mass unemployment and national ruin.” The Times leader agrees: “Judged by any reasonable outsider it was not a prospectus for government but for economic disaster.”

There’s plenty more of this, with gleeful reporting of red-meat outre conference moments – MP Laura Smith’s call for a general strike against democracy, cheered on by the shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, Dawn Butler’s batty praise for the days of Liverpool’s Militant regime, and so on. So much, so routine.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The message is loud and clear that Theresa May’s government is running on empty – and Brexit has sucked the air out everything.’ Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

But read beyond the headlines and every one of these rightwing leader-writers says the same thing: Tories, beware! This Corbyn stuff is political magic that may fool the unwary voter. Here’s the Mail: “It is simply not enough for Tories to point out the truth that Mr Corbyn’s policies are disastrous or that he’s surrounded by antisemites and sympathisers with anti-western terrorists … No, at their conference next week the Tories need to set out their own solutions to the grievances Mr Corbyn has identified. They must find positive language to convince the country that under them the future for all will be bright. After this week’s display of far-left lunacy in Liverpool, the stakes couldn’t be higher.”

The FT’s Sebastian Payne writes: “Only a new economic agenda can save the Conservatives.” The Times leader ends, “In the battle for ideas between the two main parties, the quality is low but Mr Corbyn is right that he is winning … It should not be hard to make a case for grown-up government, Mrs May is just making it look much harder.” Their stablemate The Sun warns the same: “If the Tories don’t fix the problems that DO exist they’re sunk, and Britain too.” The Telegraph leader warns that Corbyn’s speech ended on “a triumphalist note that the Tories urgently need to silence with a plan of their own.”

The message, loud and clear, is that May’s government is running on empty, Brexit has sucked the air out everything, and it is as short of inspiration as John Major’s comical conference speech where his response to crashing out of the ERM was a motorway cones hotline. These Tory commentators can all feel the seismic quake of the centre ground lurching away from Margaret Thatcher’s certainty that lower taxes and a smaller state is where elections are won. They are blindsided by finding her policies rejected because they have failed.

The ideological icons of her era have tumbled down, of their own accord. Renationalising the utilities she snatched from public ownership has the backing of a public scandalised by their privatised boards’ behaviour. Her “Tell Sid” share-owning democracy never happened, but Corbyn’s might. Her right-to-buy sold off huge numbers of council homes, many of which are now owned by rack-renting landlords charging inflated rents – and the bill is picked up by the taxpayer through housing benefit, amid a housing crisis. Home ownership has fallen not risen. What on earth can they find – fast – to replace their lost faith?

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But something else is also at work today, not a noble search for new directions but a familiar dig at their own hated leader. They use Corbyn’s cornucopia of new thinking as a stick to beat May in their continuing fratricidal internal warfare over Brexit. Quentin Letts’ long leader-page piece says it all. Once he has ritually knocked Labour about a bit, he warns they might win – and May is to blame. But the lesson he wants his party to learn is to double down on all the policies the public is moving away from. “Imagine if the Tories started speaking of liberty, of tax-cutting, of proper defence spending, of cutting the foreign aid budget by two-thirds and getting us cleanly out of the EU, no strings, no caveats. And imagine if they did it with a sense of joy. Impossible under Theresa May? If so, find someone more charismatic.”

Well, bring it on. If the only lesson they can learn is that the country is in need of more of the same, Labour will have a clear run whenever the next election comes.

• Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist