On 5 August 2016 Jeremy Corbyn came to Penderyn Square in Merthyr Tydfil. It was to deliver a speech in support of his current leadership campaign. I'd gone there the day before not knowing it had been postponed 24 hours. A few other people arrived mistakenly as well as me - two were an elderly couple from Carmarthen. I doubt people would travel five minutes to see Owen Smith, yet will drive more than an hour to hear what Jeremy Corbyn has to say.

Anyway, the fruitless Thursday journey was anything but. Adjoining the Square is the Wetherspoon's pub, the Dic Penderyn, and boy, do they have some good craft ales there. Pity I was restricted to the one as I was driving.

Friday at the Square was totally different. It was like a gathering for a concert or a football match. Droves of people heading out of the main car park, all going in one direction. By 1.30pm it was getting crowded. Speeches kicked off at 2 - three main speakers before Corbyn, all very good and entertaining. But everyone was really there for one thing - the main event, not the supporting acts, good though they were. Here is a video of Corbyn, you can skip the first few minutes if you only want his speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXiahq4GilM

I went there even though I am not a Labour Party member. I don't vote Labour though I once did. But I went along to get a sense of what the Corbyn movement is all about.

Are his followers all Socialist Worker Party members, bunches of Trotskyites, extreme Left plotters against the Establishment, people who will kidnap your children and brainwash them with Corbyn's philosophy on life?

I had a shock, because if there were SWP banners there I didn't spot any. I spoke to over a dozen people, randomly. A spread of age from 20's to 70's. Men and women. Some were now Labour supporters or members having joined within the last year but hadn't been Party members before. Because of the fresh new approach that Corbyn offered. Some had left the Party due to Blair and Iraq and had sworn never to return - but Corbyn now offers something completely different. And some had been Party members for years, holding their noses at the neo-liberal version of the Party they loved, hijacked by Blair and never recovered.

But everyone I spoke to had this or something similar to say:

Jeremy offered something different. Because they could trust him. He had integrity. They believed when he spoke that he spoke the truth, what he believed, not what he wanted you to hear in order to vote for him. He was genuine, no spin, no arrogance, no bullshit. He was one of them not someone masquerading as one of them.

I could put into print what they thought about Owen Smith but I'm pretty sure you can guess anyway.

Unfortunately for me, in the moments after the rally had finished, I was brought back down to earth with a bang. I popped into the Dic for a pint of decent ale. The queue was huge. Standing behind me was a young woman, about thirty and we struck up a conversation - as you do.

"That's a hell of a crowd been outside the last hour. What's it all about, I can see lots of Police there?" she said.
"Oh, it's Jeremy Corbyn. He's come to Merthyr as part of his leadership campaign" I replied.
"Who's Jeremy Corbyn then - is he famous?"

That is a genuine story, no flannel, as it happened. There's no hope really, is there?