We should all read Charlotte Church on why Jeremy Corbyn is appealing to young people

This was the week that people began asking whether Labour was eating itself, as the party panicked over one poll putting Jeremy Corbyn on course to win its leadership election.

Tony Blair gave a speech in which he warned anyone whose heart was with Corbyn to "get a transplant", a former Blair adviser branded those MPs who had got Corbyn on the ballot paper as "morons", and the other leadership candidates warned the party risked being dragged back to the 1980s.

The Times/YouGov poll that said Corbyn would replace Ed Miliband as leader suggested stronger support among younger voters, and women.

Singer Charlotte Church is among those lending her voice to support Corbyn, the MP for Islington North since 1983.

The 29-year-old, who last month addressed an anti-austerity rally in Trafalgar Square, tried to explain why Corbyn was resonating with people, particularly the young, in a post on her blog:

The inverse of Nigel Farage, he appears to be a cool-headed, honest, considerate man, one of the few modern politicians who doesn't seem to have been trained in neuro-linguistic programming, unconflicted in his political views, and abstemious in his daily life. He is one of the only politicians of note that seems to truly recognise the dire inequality that exists in this country today and actually have a problem with it. There is something inherently virtuous about him, and that is a quality that can rally the support of a lot of people, and most importantly, a lot of young people. With the big three zero on the horizon for me, I don't know if I still count as a 'young person"'. What I can say is that for the first time in my adult life there is a politician from a mainstream party who shares my views and those of most people I know, and also has a chance of actually doing something to create a shift in the paradigm, from corporate puppetry to conscientious societal representation.

She goes on to write:

The hysteria that has rendered certain members of the Labour party catatonic, and has the right wing press rubbing its hands together in glee, is ultimately based on nonsense. The fact is that this election is not for the position of king of kings but for the leader of a party of equals. No matter how far left Jeremy Corbyn is, if he is voted leader he will have to represent a party that is jam packed with shy Tories and Blairites. He would be dragged towards the centre ground anyway. But he would have galvanised the support of many disparate factions of society, who didn't vote in the general election, or who voted Ukip, or maybe even some of those who voted Tory.

More: Someone has set up a parody Jeremy Corbyn Twitter account and it’s glorious