IF DAY One of the Corbyn era was messy, the second will have been adjudged, at least by his camp, a thumping success. The comrades loved him in Brighton and the sisters appear to have forgiven him, after what was arguably a fake row over female shadow cabinet posts in which the media and political critics involved scarcely held feminist credentials.

That the Cameron Government is pushing through the most draconian anti-trade union legislation in generations is gold dust for Mr Corbyn at this time.

It means he can appear as the reasonable voice in a debate in which Messrs Cameron and Osborne are playing the evil mill owners in lum hats.

The TUC adoration will carry a price in terms of condemnation in some quarters but it will focus the minds of a Labour Parliamentary group that must decide whether to put up or shut up on their new leader.

Mr Corbyn appears to command support not just in the trade unions but in the general community among those who feel wrecked and gutted by austerity.

Recent polling suggested a minor recovery for Labour in Scotland as a Corbyn leadership loomed, and yet we have reluctance from Kezia Dugdale to acknowledge this and Alistair Darling weighing in with a resolutely New Labour message at this of all times.

Mr Corbyn still looks like the school kid whose mum has to help him with his tie, but that is part of his appeal: not looking like a Blairite smoothie.

No matter how the media portray him as a bearded, bicycling weirdo, he is liked by those who have become cynical about conventional politicians.

The odds appear to have shifted against an early coup against him and, in truth, no-one knows how the longer term game will play out. On trade union rights he may prove to be closer to mainstream public opinion than the Government.

On dealing with the banking crisis and its aftermath his position is more populist than that of a Chancellor who has used quantitive easing to benefit the banking industry rather than the rest of society.

Is Mr Corbyn a potential prime minister? The universal view of pundits is no. But these would be the same pundits who ruled out the possibility of him being elected Labour leader in the first place, or the pundits who said the SNP would slide into oblivion after losing the referendum a year ago.

The point is that austerity and the refugee crisis have pushed UK and Scottish politics into uncharted territory.

Mr Corbyn won almost 60 per cent of the vote to be Labour leader and, in spite of some shrill headlines to the contrary, many people like what they see.

They seem to have admiration for someone who appears not to care about the usual political image building, who actually believes in politics and who is a standing reproach to the kind of parliamentarians who charged the taxpayer for duck houses and moats.

People are aware of the evidence of growing inequality in our society and Mr Corbyn’s radical policies to reverse that trend will garner support.

In Scotland the Yes campaign and subsequent surge of support for the SNP provided evidence of a growing unease with the manifestations of inequality and that is being seen in the Corbyn effect in politics south of the Border.

It is too early to say if the tide is turning throughout Britain but, if it is, Mr Corbyn could be the beneficiary.