So it looks like the gun has been fired on a new leadership race for the Labour Party and by default the Leadership of the country. I have never felt comfortable with situations like this. It does not seem right that the country can choose a PM and a couple of hundred MP's can get rid of them and replace them with someone more to their taste, once they've done the hard work of winning an election. I am no fan of Sir Keir Starmer and I feel he is tarnished by the Peter Mandelson affair. His judgement has clearly been shown to be appalling. The Labour party has not had the air of a party in control of the country or even its own destiny much of the time. We've had all manner of U-Turns and polciy changes. After two years of Labour, no one seems any the wiser what 'Starmerism' is. That is because there is no such thing. It has been forgotten by just about everyone that Starmer became Leader on the back of a Boris Johnson landslide. Most sane commentators thought that following the Corbyn era, Labour would be out of power for a decade. Starmers job was to rebuild trust and convince people Labour could become electable again.
I doubt that even Keir Starmer thought he'd win a landslide himself at the next election. The truth is that this would never have happened if he wasn't politically very lucky. Boris Johnson's clown like antics during covid shot them in the foot, then they elected Liz the Lettuce Truss and shot themselves in the other foot. Needing to reassure the markets to prevent wholescale economic collapse, they appointed Rishi Sunak, a boring and dull man, who had an air of competence about him. Sunak may have reassurred the Bond markets, but he never convinced the British people that he had what it took. In Short, Keir Starmer was presented with an open goal at the election and even he couldn't miss. I suspect that half of the problems we are having is that Starmer has never really known what he wanted politically.
I find some of the comments on Twitter from those at the edges of politcs hilarious. They would have you believe that Starmer was personally responsible for Rape Gangs, Jimmy Saville and selling out the UK over the Chagos Islands. Anyone with half a brain should know that the DPP does not make law, they simply make sure it is enforced according to what the law actually is. Anyone with half a brain should know that the Chagos Islands deal was being drawn up for years during the Tory era. Starmer is a lawyer. Sadly the job of lawyers is not to do what is right, but to ensure that the law is interpreted according to the best interests of their clients. Lawyers working in Public service jobs, interpret law on hbehalf of the UK government. They do not set the priorities. When Starmer was DPP and he was presented with the Jimmy Savile case, he was not told "Savile is a wrong 'un, can we hang him?". He was given legal briefing papers that you would need to have studied law to fully understand. He wouldn't have made the rules up on the hoof.
Starmer is a trained advocate. He is not an ideas man. He is at his best when he is destroying the work of someone else. When he has to set the agenda, he is useless. However, we live in a very difficult and dangerous world. Much as I dislike Starmer and the concept that Lawyers run the country, we have Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on the world stage. Having someone who believes nothing and can talk their way out of anything is actually a good thing for the UK right now. Starmer was right to stay out of the Iran war. Starmer was right to try and cut deals with Trump. Starmer was right to try and bring Europe together in the face of Russian aggression. Who will we replace him with? It looks like one of Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting or Andy Burnham. I am not altogether sure that any of them look as if they'd have the measure of Trump or Putin. It would take them months to build the contacts and trust with our allies that Starmer has. What appalls me is that I can see no one in UK politics who I think would be an improvement on Starmer at this moment. Look at the party leaders. Badenoch, Davey, Pollinsky, Farage. If you would trust them to do a better job with Trump & Putin, the EU, China, etc than Starmer. you are a braver than me. You may well say "They can't be any worse". Look at Truss, who thought that it would take a month for her to tank the economy?
Want a new PM? Careful what you wish for. What we need is someone who actually understands the UK economy and can rebuild it. Without financial strength, we are doomed as a nation. As a nation,, we've been surviving on borrowed money foy decades now. We are reaching the point where the UK is starting to look like it's on borrowed time. Whoever the next PM is, will be coming in at the most difficult and dangerous time for the UK since WW2. Want a new PM? Careful what you wish for.
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