Grayling launches Do Not Underestimate Jeremy Corbyn Association. Membership limited

As a founder in 2010 (along with James Forsyth and Ben Brogan) of DUEMA (the Do not Underestimate Ed Miliband Association) I have some experience of these campaigns, which are usually launched by people trying to look counter-intuitive. And it is in a constructive spirit that I here tell Chris Grayling not to waste his or our time.

The Transport Secretary has written for Conservative Home saying that Corbyn should not be underestimated. In establishing DUEJCA he is trying to gee up the Tory grassroots to campaign and donate, or possibly trying to give frustrated commuters waiting on a platform for a Southern Rail train that never comes something to laugh about.

The thesis seems to be that Corbyn will sneak Labour back in via local elections and then, in combination with the Liberal Democrats, make it to Number 10 in coalition in 2020. (Stop laughing at the back.)

Nothing is impossible, but this is Jeremy Corbyn and the concept of British voters deciding that they want him in Number 10 is pretty damn close to an impossibility. On Brexit Labour does not know which way to turn. The party is ruined in Scotland (which the Corbyn cultists said he was going to win back, remember?). It is in trouble in Wales, on the run in the North and squeezed in the Midlands. Only in London, which the rest of the UK cannot abide, is Labour strong, albeit that is Sadiq Khan Labour rather than Corbynite Labour.

The party is also disappearing from national discourse. At the key moment yesterday on Brexit, on May’s defining speech, it was Nicola Sturgeon who made much more impact. Corbyn was pictured sitting a room with Diane Abbott, watching May on TV, with both taking notes. It was pathetic to see the party of Attlee, Healey, Callaghan, Castle, Smith, Brown and Blair reduced to this pitiful spectacle.

Grayling’s DUEJCA is not going to work. We had trouble in 2010 getting members for DUEMA, which was founded simply to say that Miliband was tougher than he looked, less annoying than his brother, and would go the distance to the election and might, might make it with a lucky break or two. We were wrong, although in mitigation Ed Miliband is a giant compared to Corbyn.

It is not possible to overstate how small a threat Corbyn poses to anyone other than himself and the Labour party. He is the least popular populist ever. He is a bear of little brain surrounded by Marxist zealots at war with modern Britain. His approval numbers are off the charts in a bad way. His ineptitude is extraordinary. He is not very good. That is all.