Since everyone is thanking Jeremy Corbyn, the thing I’d like to thank him for is making the nature of British politics absolutely crystal clear. I think they tried explicitly to do this and got more than they bargained for, but it’s a big service.

I though electing Corbyn was mental because I’d spent years being Very Online bickering with people about our various wars, and so I knew exactly how much respect people with my views get from Sensible people and how far the normal rules of conduct that apply to them apply to us.

And even then I was surprised to learn how far the flabby centre of British politics believes in pretty much nothing - they might individually believe in improving provision of care or refuges for victims of domestic violence but beyond that it gets much, much more vague.

What have these five years told us about these people? Well, they believe in being sensible and moderate and polite to opponents, and they plainly believe in these things far beyond actual outcomes, as shown by the relative concern for nasty tweets vs e.g. rocketing homelessness.

It’s been very helpful in working out who will stick to a consistent position come what may and who will veer wildly all over the road, if they see a moment’s advantage in it.

Mostly though, it’s really emphasised who is pretty much happy with things the way they are, although they’d like them to be more or less so. Folk who think everything would be better if people like them were in charge, obviously, and naturally they would do things, of some kind.

I’m aware that this isn’t the kind of thing that’s necessarily good for a political movement but it’s definitely been very helpful to me in demonstrating where people’s interests lie and what they want when all the bullshit falls away. So thanks for that, Jeremy. Very handy.