Events will soon show whether the extraordinary rise of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North in London, represents a bout of midsummer madness or a lasting shift to the Left in and beyond the Labour Party. He has become the star turn of the Labour leadership contest, outshining the other three candidates by several kilowatts. His public meetings have been packed and enthusiastic, the evidence shows that many young people have flocked to join the party just because of him, and various polls indicate him leading the field by a wide margin. And this is a man who almost did not make it on to the ballot paper. Only at the last minute did he receive the required endorsement of 40 MPs. Yet he is the anti-austerity candidate par excellence, an English version of a phenomenon that saw the