Gareth Derrick, of Ivybridge, writes:

I am a former naval officer who has lived with my family in Plymouth and its surrounding areas for more than 30 years and am the director of a small dispute resolution business. With a master’s degree in ­international relations, I have served with the Royal Navy

on humanitarian and peace ­support operations in Iraq, and in Bangladesh and Japan on defence diplomacy assignments. My final Royal Navy appointment in April 2013 was in command of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Reserves.

It is increasingly understood just how inspiring and potentially game-changing is Jeremy Corbyn’s remarkable progress in the Labour leadership contest.

Attending his speech last week at the Guildhall in Plymouth, I could not fail to see that, far from being a threat to UK politics and the Labour Party, this is a man with ­conviction and passion for his beliefs who speaks a language that can be understood by all.

His message – to truly ­reconnect politics with people across the UK – may yet give rise to a new mass movement that will expose the often ­misleading and self-interested political hype that is wearing us all down.

Eclipsing the other somewhat desperate candidates in the election, he embarrasses them with his clarity of message

and reminds the people of Plymouth and the whole south west that the inequalities that are growing day by day in our society are with us as much as anywhere in the UK.

His critics, most often big names in the Labour Party, ­continue to bemoan Jeremy’s supposed unelectability, talking of the need to win back lost Labour voters. But his ­campaign shows that he is far more capable than that – he can evidently inspire young voters and non-voters to believe there can be a better way and give the older generations a reason to remember that they vote for their children’s futures as well as their own.

His call for unashamed ­compassion in society is hugely pertinent to the refugee crisis across Europe and puts our present government to shame.

Jeremy Corbyn will almost certainly be elected to lead the Labour Party next week.

He will face a brutal media campaign attempting to demonise him and will undoubtedly need to broaden his appeal beyond the obvious fertile ground. This will mean modifying some of his ideas to address the reality of today’s challenges as they twist and turn.

But try listening to him ­sometime and you may just find that he is in fearless ­pursuit of what is right for our society. That can’t be bad.