(Read on, or view here: https://youtu.be/s5MWk3XaqR0 )
With tumultuous events unfolding everywhere, the IT outage and US election turbulence just for starters, it’s easy to lose track of our new Prime Minister’s steady-as-he-goes approach to running the country. But, as our Political Correspondent Peter Spencer reports, that bit does matter to all of us.
A vital attribute for any leader is luck. Simple as that. And Sir Keir Starmer’s had plenty of it so far.
He’s hardly had time to get his feet under his new Downing Street desk, whizzing around as he has been to cosy up to top bods in the White House and across Europe.
But the experience has given him a first-hand sense of the interlocking nature of the challenges faced on both sides of the Atlantic.
The European talking shop was set up to show civilised solidarity in the face of Russian barbarity in Ukraine. And the picture there is muddied by political developments stateside.
Joe Biden’s future has been in a doom loop for a while now, and Donald Trump’s been consolidating what he’s framing as his attempted martyrdom by his choice of running mate in the US election.
JD Vance – his names are James David btw – is an arch critic of helping the invaded nation, so it’s little surprise that the Ruskies think he’s an excellent choice.
Given that the Donald’s none too keen either, and not overly struck on NATO for that matter, it’s looking more and more likely that the war in our back yard will be our problem.
Worth remembering that the Americans only saved us in the the First and Second World Wars when their own materiel came under attack. Situation normal then?
Still, we needn’t worry our pretty heads too much about that, because Vance reckons Vladimir Putin doesn’t pose an: ‘Existential threat to Europe.’
That’s all right then. Who cares that Russia’s former President and leading security boss Dmitry Medvedev says his lot will crush Ukraine whatever peace terms might eventually be agreed.
Then what? Bear in mind Hitler’s unannounced invasion of Poland. With a little help from the Russians.
Little wonder that when, on Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy became the first foreign leader to address the British cabinet in decades he got an attentive and anxious hearing.
Nonetheless, on the assumption we’re not all about to be French fried potatoes when we fry, ministers are doing their best to translate aspirations in the King’s Speech into realities on the ground.
The new laws list was ever so long, and markedly more specific about eventual aims than immediate timescales.
However, the theme running through most of the forty bills was a pretty interventionist government not putting its hands in the nation’s pockets, and finding nothing there, but creating frameworks.
Starmer’s betting the farm on economic growth, and he will undoubtedly have done his bit at the pan-European bash to interest big business across the channel in investing in UK Plc.
Every little helps, as the time-worn slogan goes.
But the levers over which he has direct control are being pulled. Most visibly in the area of planning reform.
The idea being to succeed where the Tories failed. Steamroller through the wherewithal to build new homes and infrastructure all over the place, and devil take the Nimbies.
His predecessor’s problem was that the grumpy tendency, on the ascendancy for years within the so-called governing party, meant he didn’t stand a chance.
Starmer’s advantage, certainly at this stage, is that his chaps and chapesses are doing the boss’s bidding.
So long as that holds good, we can look forward to tangible and visible results in the form of lots of lovely places for people to live in. At little financial cost to the exchequer.
Political cost to Labour is another matter. The hope is the houses will appear before cracks in solidarity get too serious.
The other hope is that the nation will cut Keir enough slack to let things evolve at their own, necessarily fairly leisurely, pace.
He’s doing ok so far, with an Ipsos poll showing well over a third of voters giving him the thumbs up. Up there with Boris Johnson at the height of the Covid vaccine rollout.
This week’s excoriating report on how his lot actually performed during the pandemic, citing what it termed ‘fatal strategic flaws’, goes to show how flimsy and at times misplaced public support can be.
But for now, clearly, Starmer’s on a roll. And some of his ideas, like the renationalisation of the railways, are overwhelmingly popular with the punters.
Likewise his plan for a greener Britain via the state-owned company GB Energy.
As the scale of the climate crisis gripping the world becomes ever more apparent, the notion of the nation taking control of spending in wind power, solar energy and gigafactories does appeal.
Works for the government too, as the aim is to only shell out one pound of taxpayers’ money to every three of private investment.
But problems loom further down the line, like Starmer’s refusal for now at least to abolish the two-kiddie cap on child support. And the vexed issue of public sector pay.
There could also be pressures, both from unions and employers, over Starmer’s plans for workers' rights. Do they go too far, or not far enough? Needs a fine balance to avoid a fine mess.
Then there’s the jam-packed prisons crisis. Thousands of inmates are to be let out after serving well under half their sentences, to avoid the very real risk of mayhem, both in jails and on the streets.
The fact that it’s reached this pretty pass is a damning indictment of the Tories’ laxity in not doing something sooner.
But all it’ll take is some vile person who’s been released early to do something hideous and suddenly it’ll be all Labour’s fault.
The irony, meanwhile, probably won’t be lost on anyone that on the very day old lags are being let out early, a bunch of climate activists are getting the longest sentences ever for non violent protests.
Still, the way things are going they’ll probably be out in a jiffy. Or maybe not just yet.
A perhaps more interesting point is just how long Rishi Sunak will be shackled into his new role as leader of His Majesty’s official opposition.
Question is, will what’s currently looking more like a circular firing squad than a political party go for the long or short game in finding his successor.
There’s a perfectly plausible case to be made on both sides of the argument. Though what could well turn out to be the clincher will be the fact that the Tories are seriously strapped for cash right now.
Donations fell between hero Bojo’s landslide victory in 2019 and now – by a staggering ninety per cent.
This strongly suggests the Tories might have no choice but to crack on with the job, getting it sorted at the autumn conference and no later.
Since losing the top job Rishi Sunak has behaved with dignity and generosity. But wouldn’t any human being in his situation want to go AWOL ASAP? Hell yes!
PS: View my telly take on Tory leadership contest here: https://x.com/i/status/1814537413995475242
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