Guido readers will know derpy Danny Blanchflower as the economist whose predictions are reliably wrong. Well, for the first time Guido can remember, Blanchflower may have a point. He is currently advising John McDonnell on Labour’s economic policy, and has written a scathing attack on Corbyn and his team in the New Statesman:

“These are early days and the new Labour Party still doesn’t have many economic policies to speak of. The problem is that opposition to austerity on its own is not enough. It is time to start thinking about how Labour can become a credible opposition – and that requires getting real about the economy.

The new Labour leaders are not economists and are going to have to learn fast. They will have to accept the realities of capitalism and modern markets, like it or not. No more silly stuff about companies not being able to pay dividends if they don’t do X or Y. If companies are not allowed to pay dividends, share prices will potentially rise instead. If you raise corporate taxes too high, companies may move to Ireland or elsewhere, where they are lower.”

This is a direct attack on Corbyn’s new policy to ban businesses from distributing dividends unless they agree to certain rules on pay. And an attack on McDonnell’s desire to hike corporation tax. If Labour’s top team are too out there for Danny…