I’VE been having a clear out. I took a black plastic sack and filled it with clothes and shoes I no longer wear. It will be going to a charity shop next week.

The Labour Party has been having its own decluttering session. Banished into the black sack are the Blairites and their Tory-lite policies, to make room for the left wingers and their red flags (very apt: red is the colour of the season; the new black, if you like). I’m not sure if anyone wants Labour’s cast-offs – even the Lib-Dems might not be that desperate.

Corbynmania has taken the country by storm and political commentators by surprise. Who would have thought that old Labour would resurrect so rudely to knock new Labour off its island kitchen (made of the finest granite, of course).

Jeremy Corbyn and his (left)wing man John McDonnell have stepped into the sudden limelight with apparent ease. Aged 64 and 66 respectively, they truly are the old guard and a sea-change from the young whipper-snappers who have bagged all the top jobs in politics of late.

“Corbyn and McDonnell” certainly rolls off the tongue and passes the double act name test. Of course, the real test will be whether their policies are popular with the public.

Unsurprisingly, most of the media has tried to paint Corbyn as a loony leftie who should be tagged as public enemy number one. The Prime Minister marked Corbyn’s leadershipvictory with a tweet: “Labour are now a serious risk to our nation’s security, our economy’s security and your family’s security”.

These accusations arise from Corbyn’s long-held stance as pro-nuclear disarmament and against the renewal of Trident, Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

It’s been a long time since nuclear weapons have been top of the news agenda, but we should welcome a new debate on them, particularly on whether it is right to spend up to £23 billion replacing Trident, with billions more on its upkeep.

Rifts are appearing already among Labour MPs on this issue, and they won’t be the first. Corbyn is bound to have many face-offs with his parliamentary party in the coming weeks and months. One of his biggest challenges will be how he can keep harmony in the House while staying loyal to the thousands of new members who have flocked to the Labour Party in recent weeks, attracted by his left-leaning policies.

So is he a loony leftie? Well he’s a leftie for sure, but a loony? I’m not sure about that. In all the times I’ve watched him on TV, I’ve yet to see him ranting and raving like a rabid dog, frothing at the mouth at the thought of eating Cameron and co for breakfast. Instead, he comes across as remarkably calm and reasonable, presenting his policies for a fairer country in a very matter-of-fact way. He’s been likened to a dull geography teacher, but I see him more as a favourite GP, the one you always want to book an appointment with because you like his experience and his easy, reassuring manner.

But does he have the remedy to cure Britain’s ills?

Few people seriously believe he could win the next election. He might have attracted 50,000 new members into the Labour Party since being elected leader, but that’s a long way off persuading millions of ordinary people to vote for his policies come 2020.

But you know what they say about a week and politics. Change can happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Corbyn’s victory is just one example of that, the rise of the SNP a vivid other.

Ironically, it is the success of the nationalists north of the border – the same party that wiped Labour almost off the Scottish political map in the general election - that holds the most hope for old Labour’s new fortunes.

The SNP built its momentum at grass roots level, energising the disenfranchised in their communities, attracting young people and carrying out an extensive voter registration drive.

These are all the tactics Team Corbyn are deploying. There is a massive constituency of folk who don’t vote and people who are looking for someone - or something - to vote for. Loony and leftie he may be, but Corbyn might be just what they are looking for.