Point taken, but in 2017 he wasn't that new - and he had been consistently monstered from the moment he won the leadership two years earlier, to the extent that he had already faced a leadership challenge that won the support of most Labour MPs. There really wasn't any honeymoon period for Corbyn.

On the other hand, there was a lot of under-the-radar anti-Corbyn messaging going on on social media, and occasionally over the radar too. This illegal poster campaign gives a flavour of it. I don't suppose it was all that crude, but I'm darned sure it was relentless.