On Thursday night last week, the UK Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn failed yet again to win a British General Election. However, his jabs at his rival, Theresa May, secured a few broken ribs, despite her starting out the campaign with all the heavy gloves.

What happened and why is this a dangerous case study for the managing of brands?

May fought the battle on two fronts. She determined that she is a better leader and that the managing of Brexit was to be the main issue. However, the proverbial ‘u-turn’ on pensions showed up core elements of incompetence. It also highlighted how for many Brexit was not the pressing matter on people’s minds.

Take the 20 – 35 year olds. Many can neither afford to rent nor to buy. May offered them no hope, none whatsoever. Hope is a key factor in any election in any country. In other words, sections of society felt abandoned.

So, Corbyn, depicted as the lover of terror groups, financially incompetent, and a poor performer in the House of Commons, suddenly found himself in a position where such weaknesses were perceived as secondary. That he has sucked up to brutal dictators like Assad, praised the IRA during its days of murdering British civilians, and is surrounded by anti-semites – all fundamentally spitting in the face of core British values – were factors to be seen as irrelevant. Corbyn was of the hook. he had been transformed into a ‘breath of fresh air’.

Let me be clear. To adapt the words of an old Rowan Atkinson sketch, I would not trust Corbyn to sit the right way on a lavatory seat.

But there is something far worse about Corbyn. I am currently reading a masterful book, written over 20 years ago by Professor Alan Bullock: “Hilter and Stalin – Parallel Lives“. I have just finished the section on 1917 to 1923 in Russia, and I felt that I read it before. Here is why.

First, I refer to Bullock’s review of Lenin and internationalism. When Labour launched a document three weeks ago on how to tackle racism in the UK, including anti-Semitism, it was built on three planks, one of which is internationalism. And what does that long word mean in this context?

Briefly, people should be allowed to practice their religion in freedom. However, when it comes to the Jews, then ‘we’ have a problem. Because 99% of all Jews see themselves as a nation. They pray to Zion and face towards Jerusalem. That individualism is not allowed under internationalism!

And that is why, when the Labour document referred to the evils of anti-Semitism, it could bear to mention even once the connection between hate crimes against Jews and what is happening in the Middle East. This in turn explains how Corbyn is known to encourage talks with Hamas, dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel and in cahoots with ISIS. In other words, terror is better than a democratic country like Israel, which allows all regions to pray openly. That is what Britain wishes to prefer?

Second, Lenin was a Bolshevik. Between the first and second revolutions of 1917, his role was to create disruption. A strategical genius with little grasp of true governance, he fully understood the implications of a weak central authority. And when others were looking in the opposite direction, he seized full power overnight and then wrapped the claws of the party around it tightly.

Note how Corbyn has progressed in the past two years. And observe his actions over the next few months against a badly wounded Prime Minister. Theresa May started out as an all-conquering, smiling brand, accepted (but not worshipped) by many. She opened the door for the ‘other side’ of Corbyn to walk through, and he has not stopped strutting since.

It is not just she who has been warned. This is a message that goes out beyond her own party.