There is, however, no point in pretending that it is all going very well and it is only because of the evil unfairness of the capitalist press that Corbyn is struggling to lead successfully. There are serious flaws in his leadership which are very difficult to overlook.
1. Tribalism
At a time when Donald Trump is President, Theresa May is holding his hand and Marine Le Pen is being treated as a mainstream politician there is a real need for progressive forces to work together. Personally I don't care whether I find someone of good will in the Labour Party, in the Greens, in the SNP or Plaid, or indeed in the Liberal Democrats. I may not easily forgive and forget past errors of the leaders of a political party but I strongly believe that many of the members of these parties have political beliefs that I share and who I can work with. I don't like standing against some of those folk in an election and finding that the progressive vote is split between us and that allows some far right swivel eyed fanatic falsely claiming to be a Conservative to win the seat. Equally I passionately believe that the scale of the environmental challenge at the moment is so extreme that it needs to be centre stage.
So I was really pleased when the Green Party put forward the idea of a Progressive alliance and was pleased to see us standing aside to allow Lib Dems to win in Richmond and I was also fully comfortable with the idea that it might be wise for Greens to stand aside in Stoke in the hope we could help them beat UKIP at the ballot box.
Corbyn's approach this offer of an alliance can't be said to be impressive. Instead of working to create an effective alliance he has said that he wants to target Caroline Lucas' seat and win it back for Labour. So far he has offered nothing in return to any other party that tries to work collaboratively with him. His basic view is that Labour is the party of the working class and everyone else should go away because they are simply stealing their votes.
My view is that this is a deeply old fashioned approach to take in an era when the public is looking for anti-establishment politics and has lost a lot of the old tribal loyalties. After what the last Labour government did in office it is arrogant in the extreme to expect other progressive parties to just go away and never stand up for their own values. We should all be looking for the talented and the honest people in our own localities and working together to back them regardless of the label they carry.
The next election is going to be staggeringly important because it may be the last one before Brexit or the first one immediately after. Either way it will shape the future very significantly. There are many places, particularly down south, where only a few voters will ever vote Labour but the public wants to support a party that is anti Brexit. If Labour stands against them the Liberal Democrats will win a lot less of those seats. How will that help? I know that many Labour people will say the Lib Dems are the spawn of the devil because of what they did in entering the coalition government. I share the dislike of the way the LIb Dems in power abandoned their commitments and ushered in austerity politics and student fees. But I also have a deep dislike of the last Blair government and of Gordon Brown telling us he had put an end to boom and bust whilst delivering one of the biggest ever. If Labour wants people to put those memories behind them and forgive and forget they are going to need to do a bit of forgiving of their own and stand aside in seats where the Lib Dems, Greens and Nationalist have a realistic chance of beating the Conservatives or UKIP. The other parties will need to do the same to let Labour win the key marginals they need. We are not in a two party race. We are in for a messy multi party battle in which we all might have to swallow hard before we vote. This isn't a minor tactical issue. This is the way we get rid of this government and start taking the country in a healthy direction. The only realistic way to win the next election is a Progressive Alliance. Where are the signs that Corbyn even begins to understand any of this? How long can the rest of us stay patient if Labour is happy to take but refuses to give anything back?
2. The EU
The Conservatives are split right down the middle and very bitterly over the EU. Yet somehow they have managed to look comparatively coherent on the issue. Because the comparison is with Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party.
I thoroughly understand Corby's nervousness over the EU. It isn't the finest of institutions. What its bureaucrats did to Greece doesn't bear thinking about. But a party needs a clear policy on the issue.
The Lib Dems are clearly in favour at almost any price. The Greens believe that we should stay in and fight together for another kind of EU. Labour believes.... Well does anyone actually know?
It would have been possible for Corbyn to stand up and say he wants us to leave and these are the policies he wants for an independent UK. That would have been coherent. Or he could have said that leaving the EU was a mistake that will cost British workers, farmers, employers, and regions dearly and it must be fought tooth and nail. That also would have been coherent. He could even have tried to support a balanced approach that recognised the vote but insisted on promises being delivered or the issue being revisited. He could have joined those of us who are saying that a tiny majority voted to leave the EU on the basis of a set of politicians' promises and unless the British public gets the tariff free access, the wonderful workers rights, the fantastic support for farmers, for industry, and for the NHS that we were promised then we need to vote again on the realities not the promises.
Instead Corbyn has dithered about following no consistent line and tried to discipline MPs to vote against their consciences without offering them any real sense that they were working together to fight back against building walls around little England. Whatever little Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales might think or need. That is not my idea of clear impressive leadership. That is not offering people a coherent message that they are inspired to follow. That is giving the greatest free gift to the far right that they have ever received from Labour and it is hardly surprising that even loyal left wingers like Clive Lewis have decided they can't put up with it.
3. Confused and outdated thinking
On many issues Corbyn gets it absolutely right. Support for welfare state, attack on tax dodging, building council homes ... the list is a strong one and he deserves support for articulating the importance of these issues and for mobilising a lot of people behind them. But he is weakened by some of the classic flaws of the statist left. Has anyone heard him give a coherent analysis of why Venezuela isn't a socialist paradise? Or even heard him admit something has gone wrong? I think I can articulate the problem there in one sentence. Never trust a government that doesn't value freedom as much as it claims to value equality. How would Corbyn explain it?
He is also weak on a number of environmental issues. He thinks jobs in the nuclear industry are more important than a coherent strategy to take us beyond vanity projects like Hinkley Point. I've seen no evidence of him clearly coming out against fracking. And it is pretty clear that he views the issue of climate change as important - but not as important as anything which threatens jobs in heavy industries. His commitment to environmental causes is infinitely better than that of the Conservative government. But it is not clear that it is as strong as say the commitment of the Liberal Democrats or the Welsh Nationalists. And he certainly doesn't share the awareness of most Green campaigners that unless this issue dominates our future thinking then we won't have much of a future to think about.
This brings me to the real problem I have with Corbyn. I agree with him on a whole series of issues. I admire many of his principled stands. I was pleased when he won the leadership of the Labour Party because I thought he stood a chance of taking it in a very positive direction. But it is not enough to have quite a few of the right ideas. A real leader needs the ability to put those ideas across, to stand up effectively for the people they represent and to win the arguments and then the election.
The truth is that Corbyn has a lot of the right ideas and very few of the right abilities. Compare how well Nicola Sturgeon has done in attacking the Conservatives and Corbyn's ability to attack his targets effectively? Compare the performance of Conservatives like Ken Clarke and Anna Soubry in attacking Theresa May and his efforts. Compare the performance of Caroline Lucas in Parliament and his despite her complete lack of resources.
The people who worked hard to elected Corbyn have been let down. And it is now extraordinarily difficult to see a way out of the mess that has been left. Unless that is you fancy joining a party that did oppose the Iraq war, that did oppose austerity and that does understand the central challenge that the world is now facing. Its very survival.
For all their flaws I am feeling very grateful that I'm in the Greens.