THOSE values that are most commonly associated with the British character have served a useful purpose for the people who have traditionally arranged how politics are managed in this country. In England attributes such as reserve, moral rectitude and the avoidance of zeal are stitched into the fabric of the nation. If Britain were ever to have a national motto (and it can only be a matter of time before Mary Berry is asked to tour the nation to find one) it would be the Latin for something like “moderation in everything” or “don’t scare the horses”.

Unseemly displays of passion are best left to the foreigners, especially those from sunnier climes where an absence of rain can make a fellow forget himself in the heat of the moment. Sometimes we regard citizens from these countries as possessing an unpredictable streak that makes them less trustworthy and willing to knuckle down and take orders. They’re just not made of the stuff that can build empires and retain power.

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, knows all this too. This week he reached out to "moderate" Labour voters by presenting himself as the new Tony Blair. There he was pictured in front of this year’s LibDem slogan: Open, Tolerant and United, which is about as fey and vapid a clarion call as you could ever wish to see. It’s obviously building towards next year’s slightly more adventurous: Nice, Polite and Calm. The LibDems, you see, are the go-to people when the Tories or Labour need a crutch to help them get over the electoral finishing line. Their slogan probably ought to be borrowed from Groucho Marx: “Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ... well, I have others.”

Later today Jeremy Corbyn is expected to be confirmed as Labour leader once more and Mr Farron is hoping to scoop up all of those Labour "moderates" who have been traumatised by the beastly Corbynistas who are given to unkempt and unpredictable fits of passion and anger. Mr Corbyn will have won because he represents things that many people (around 600,000 of them) thought had been kidnapped by Tony Blair and his acolytes when they annexed the party in 1997: passion, anger and loud, loud noise. He is a rebuke to those who would prefer a quiet life of gentle change rather than to challenge the power structures designed to ensure that social inequality in Britain will never meaningfully be addressed. The steps they want to take to tackle this are like footsteps in wet sand: they leave an impression for a few fleeting seconds and then disappear.

Britain is a country in which any fits of anger and passion are promptly swallowed up by the national acquiescence in the way it’s always meant to be. There is hand-wringing and questions in the House (which is, after all, what the House is for), and someone, somewhere sets up a petition. Occasionally an inquiry ensues, chaired by a chap with the task of doing all it takes and for however long it takes to absorb the anger and the passion until it is spent and we all weary of it. If you want to know more about how this works, just look up "Chilcot".

This year already we have learned that some of the most influential and richest people in the UK deploy off-shore vehicles located in the South Pacific to avoid paying taxes on the money that other people have earned for them. By next year the Panama papers will have become one of the answers in a pub quiz.

Within a few months we had voted to participate in a bombing campaign in Syria which we knew would put many innocent people in danger of being incinerated by missiles bearing the Union flag. We also committed £205 billion to renewing our weapons of mass destruction while cutting benefits to sick, elderly and unemployed people, none of whom so far as we can ascertain has been guilty of routinely depriving the Exchequer of its share of anything they previously earned. Within weeks, though, the imprint of our shallow outrage had been reclaimed by the sea.

The conclusion of Margaret Thatcher’s mission to kill the steel industry also took place. There were articles in the New Statesman and more hand-wringing on the six o’ clock news. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation told us (as it always does) that the communities that were most deprived and put at a disadvantage a generation ago are still deprived and being put at a disadvantage at present. The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission told us (as it always does) that power, influence and wealth are still concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite who attended a handful of the same private schools and universities.

Unless something changes radically, the same people will still be making the same decisions that ensure the same communities and the same people are still left twisting in the wind. This is what being "moderate" does to your country and this is why hundreds of thousands of new Corbyn supporters are saying "enough".

And if you think that it is all about being elected so that you can change things then look again at what has really changed in this country. Mr Corbyn is a man around whom you can construct a movement in opposition by chipping away at the edifices of unearned privilege and wealth. After that, there is only hope that those who have swallowed the Ukip and Tory agendas on immigration will come to their senses and re-join the only party that ever improved their lives and the lives of their parents. It is far, far better than seeking to gain power by participating in a grand charade.

In the same way that Westminster and its power elites have tried to destroy this man, they tried to destroy the cause of Scottish independence. Every tier of the UK establishment – those who have most to lose in the event of a Corbyn premiership or an independent Scotland – is being mobilised against him and backed up by a quiescent press and 172 Blairite sleepers.

In a thoughtful and elegant essay in this month’s Scottish Review the writer Ronnie Smith gently mourns the passing of silence in the course of modern politics. “Filling the space with anger, outrage, etc, has become more important to those active in politics than actually achieving their vaguely stated objectives.”

I fear Mr Smith is mistaken. The absence of anger and outrage and a surfeit of silence will ensure that Britain will continue to be one of the most socially unequal countries in Europe. Let’s instead be inspired once more by Dylan Thomas.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.