Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, Political Obituary of a PM

 There is a particular kind of political failure that is almost harder to forgive than corruption or scandal. It is the failure of a leader who was handed everything — a historic Parliamentary majority, an exhausted opposition, a public desperate for competent government — and still managed to squander it with the quiet, methodical thoroughness of a man who had clearly been planning to squander it all along. Keir Starmer is rapidly becoming the defining example of that failure for his generation.

When Labour swept to power in July 2024, the scale of the victory was intoxicating. Over 400 seats. A majority of 170. What was easy to miss in the euphoria was that Labour had achieved all of this on just 33.7% of the popular vote, with turnout barely scraping 60%. It was not a nation embracing Starmer. It was a nation exhausted by the alternative — and there is quite a difference between a country that wants you and one that has simply run out of worse options. Starmer never seemed to grasp this distinction, which may explain why he has spent the intervening period behaving as though he won a revolution rather than a weary national shrug.

A leader who understood the fragility of his position would have moved with urgency, clarity and purpose. Instead, Starmer has governed as he campaigned — cautiously, reactively and with a forensic attention to process that has proved entirely useless when what the moment required was instinct, conviction or the faintest flicker of inspiration....<<<Read More>>>...