SO, we now have a Labour leader – Jeremy Corbyn, a rank outsider who stormed into office with a majority that left pundits and his rivals reeling.

Just when you thought that the death knell had finally been struck on party politics, the Corbyn phenomenon rolls into town. A radical politician, taking the Labour party back to its roots, who says what he believes and isn’t afraid to be controversial.

I was reminded of the early days of the Obama campaign. The attraction of someone who appears from outside, who is driven by passion and conviction rather than expediency, who seems different from the usual run-of-the-mill career politicians.

Jeremy is attractive as a leader, claimed one commentator, politically unelectable as a Prime Minister, but refreshingly driven by what he thinks is right, not by what he thinks would make him popular – which in the end proved more popular than his opponents, who were much more adept at dancing to their spin doctors’ tunes.

It won’t last. It can’t. In the end politics The new Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn Thursday, September 24, 2015 Newsdesk: Salisbury 01722 426511 THE JOURNAL / 81 . Advertising: 01722 426500 FIELD of view By Martin Field in a democracy ends up being a messy compromise – not shouting out your beliefs more loudly than others, but listening to others and finding some common ground that you and they agree can satisfy a range of interests.

And that means being prepared to give up some things that you may hold dear in order reach consensus. It is messy, it grinds people down and in the end it is deeply unattractive.

It is the history of Liberal revivals over the last 50 years. Bold in opposition, tainted in power. Jeremy’s opponents all had experience of political office, and were tarnished by the things they had said and done in the past. He stood out head and shoulders above them.

Time will tell whether passion, conviction and belief, all enormously attractive, will ever be politically sustainable. Will Jeremy too become compromised by the inevitability of realpolitik, as others have been in the past – disappointing those who saw his victory as the early rays of a new political dawn?

It is a sad indictment on our political system that it is now dominated by a small cadre of career politicians whose desire for power means that policy is determined by what will appeal to the small percentage of central floating voters they need to attract to get themselves voted in.

If you haven’t already, you should visit Arundells, Ted Heath’s former residence in the Close. It was his private residence, a place to which he could escape to get away from politics. It celebrates his success as a yachtsman, his interest in music, in entertaining and in China.

It is a glimpse to a previous era, a time when leaders could be themselves rather than use every opportunity to squeeze out those last few crucial votes.

Good luck, Jeremy