Agreed. Even if he was minded to declare his position on how to fix the important things that are so horribly broken we have already seen the wankers nick the non-dom policy. So he can't announce details. I hope to see common sense, integrity and work ethic return to government. The biggest challenge is in tempering the country's expectations, in that, with the impatience of the modern world there has to be a realisation that repairing the damage is not going to be immediate and may well take over a decade. So let's give him a decent amount of time to try.
I agree. I also think he has a fundamental decency to him which has been so sorely lacking for the past 14 years. Cameron had a veneer of it, but ultimately that was just a show to hoodwink the electorate - ultimately it was all about his ego. Listening to Starmer in interviews, and reading the recent biography, it's clear as day that's he's just a decent guy with solid values based around a sense of justice and fairness. That doesn't mean he'll be the best leader ever, but it's an important bedrock on which to build.
I also think we've seen glimpses of a potentially much more radical agenda lying beneath the surface - even the aspiration for £28bn a year for green investment showed that, and look at the subtext of Reeves' recent lecture - lots of borrowing to invest. I think he's playing exactly the game he needs to in order to get in with a big majority. People wring their hands about the lack of a mandate to do things if he isn't more up-front now but I think this is over-egged because (1) he will announce things once the election is called, and (2) I'm not sure how much the electorate really care about mandates these days - Sunak et al have departed immensely from Johnson's 2019 mandate but this is way down the list of reasons people want them out. Rather, people will judge on a rolling basis as to whether what the government is doing is any good or not.
Thank you, and thank you again. There is a glimmer of hope.
Still can't get substack to accept any money off me, but I have bought your book. Now I have to read it. Please tell me it won't be totally depressing.
Not only is it depressing, but the coldly factual chapter on the political and civil service response to the fall of Kabul will leave you very angry. It was a nice change of pace to be fair.
My hot take: Starmer is not "the next Blair"; if I had to draw a comparison, he's more like Brown. Outwardly dull but serious, diligent and professional. And, like Brown, I daresay that he'll make decisions that I disagree with. And, like Brown, Starmer will probably be looked upon more positively after his time in office. These days, I quite respect Brown despite having doubts about a number of his policies, especially at the time. He was a decent sort who wanted to do the right thing and just get on with the job (even if you disagree with how he went about it). I suspect that Starmer is the same.
I absolutely agree with your logic in this article though. Sure, there's a chance that a Labour government of 2025 will be terrible. They might be brilliant. Or somewhere in between. But what we DO know for sure is that the alternative - five more years of Tory rule - is definitely going to be bad because we already know what they're like in power. So, at the very least, the change to a Labour government will mean that things will stop getting worse. We've got nothing to lose by voting this bunch of bastards out.
And to address the accusation of "Labour and the Tories are the same": the fact that one party is ahead of the other in the polls indicates that most people don't think this at all. The polls would be placing them neck-and-neck if that were the case, surely?
I say it a lot but we can't let perfect be the enemy of good - Starmer impressed me in his Election launch Speech in Dudley not only did he put forward policy that is vital, important and logical based on issues the majority of the country can get behind, he actually answered a question by a journalist with a direct sensible answer and fuck me that is rare! I don't have any desire to sit and have a pint with him but then I wouldn't have have relished a night out with Clement Attlee either! I'll take an Attlee over another clown in a minefield no matter how enigmatic he/she is.
I liked Jeremy Corbyn. He seems to have real principles. Theres no front with him which sets him apart from other politicians, the trouble is, he needs to be a politician to win elections. I liked Keir Starmer too and chose him for the Leadership when I was a member because he was a Remainer. I left the party because of the civil war that ensued. Remain were the only ones making any sense to me. Brexit I knew was a load of crap. It didn’t take much digging to know that. It was sold by Johnson, the lies came thick and fast. I was disappointed that JC wasn’t opposed to it. Not of course because he was a conman like Johnson because he couldn’t see how it would be abused. And look what’s happened. I wince when I see KS appealing to Tory voters. It’s not how I remember any Labour Leader behaving but I get that the country is in a mess and well we can’t afford to be fussy. I did see him recently being interviewed. I think by Andrew Marr, and my partner was watching with me and we felt a wave a relief that this is “normal”. He was discussing a policy like an adult. I don’t even remember the policy but the relief. I am concerned about how he will behave after winning. I expect him to remember that he is a Labour Leader. I expect change. I hope he has integrity.
Re your point about caution, I think we can only really judge that after the GE campaign. I also don't think people are that bothered about parties sticking to the specifics of mandates these days.
You have put my thoughts down once again and far more eloquently than I ever could.
Given what we have gone through since 2016 & even before that cataclysmic ref, I will take Starmer, flaws & all, over this obscene Tory party.
I believe he is a fundamentally decent man with 100% more idea of how to govern a country than all the so-called leaders we have endured recently.
He believes in the rule of law & I honestly don’t blame him for not showing his hand too early.
The damage the Tories have done is profound - it isn’t going to be easy, but I hope for my kids’ sake he can bring us back to something approaching the respect we once enjoyed as a democracy.
He must, though, tackle Brexit.
That is a fundamental mistake which he must address for our future wellbeing.
Making effective change needs a lot of people to cooperate patiently and with confidence in the face of difficulties and unknowns. Doing that in the face of a barrage of ill will from people without responsibility, and deliberately eschewing good faith in argument, must be very hard. Any one person, however skilled, cannot just direct change to happen, they can only create and maintain good conditions to enable others to play their own part in the work.
Obviously the government has to go but I think it is a mistake to dismiss Starmer’s record of persistent and systematic dishonesty. We should care more about that stuff.
The interesting thing, though, is that this hasn't affected Labour's poll ratings. So perhaps people just bake the expectation of deceitfulness into their view of how politicians should behave.
You’re probably right. We have definitely lowered our expectations for politicians. I do wonder if the campaign will affect how he is perceived. A bit like Theresa May, it will be the first time a lot of people will get there first look at him.
I remain extremely suspicious of him. You can't argue with his achievement of getting Labour from 2019 humiliation to 2024 govt-in-waiting, but it does seem to have come at the cost of enormous caution, which seems likely to make the changes we need extremely difficult.
But. He has two exceptionally difficult tasks in front of him. 1) Fixing all the stuff that doesn't work in this benighted country, and; 2) Persuading people that politicians can actually achieve things, rather than spout empty slogans and seek to divide us. And given the shitshow of the last eight/fourteen years, you can only wish him well.
I hope you are right that his technocratic, what-works approach will succeed. But it does feel very much like Things Can Only Get (A Little Bit) Better (But Don't Worry, Small-C Conservatives, Not Much Will Change remix)
Ah, thanks man, reading that felt good. I wish you were this candid on your TV appearances, searing the reality of Tory fuckupery into the national consciousness forever and ever.
Agreed. Even if he was minded to declare his position on how to fix the important things that are so horribly broken we have already seen the wankers nick the non-dom policy. So he can't announce details. I hope to see common sense, integrity and work ethic return to government. The biggest challenge is in tempering the country's expectations, in that, with the impatience of the modern world there has to be a realisation that repairing the damage is not going to be immediate and may well take over a decade. So let's give him a decent amount of time to try.
I agree. I also think he has a fundamental decency to him which has been so sorely lacking for the past 14 years. Cameron had a veneer of it, but ultimately that was just a show to hoodwink the electorate - ultimately it was all about his ego. Listening to Starmer in interviews, and reading the recent biography, it's clear as day that's he's just a decent guy with solid values based around a sense of justice and fairness. That doesn't mean he'll be the best leader ever, but it's an important bedrock on which to build.
I also think we've seen glimpses of a potentially much more radical agenda lying beneath the surface - even the aspiration for £28bn a year for green investment showed that, and look at the subtext of Reeves' recent lecture - lots of borrowing to invest. I think he's playing exactly the game he needs to in order to get in with a big majority. People wring their hands about the lack of a mandate to do things if he isn't more up-front now but I think this is over-egged because (1) he will announce things once the election is called, and (2) I'm not sure how much the electorate really care about mandates these days - Sunak et al have departed immensely from Johnson's 2019 mandate but this is way down the list of reasons people want them out. Rather, people will judge on a rolling basis as to whether what the government is doing is any good or not.
Thank you, and thank you again. There is a glimmer of hope.
Still can't get substack to accept any money off me, but I have bought your book. Now I have to read it. Please tell me it won't be totally depressing.
Oh no, it'll be very depressing indeed.
Not only is it depressing, but the coldly factual chapter on the political and civil service response to the fall of Kabul will leave you very angry. It was a nice change of pace to be fair.
My hot take: Starmer is not "the next Blair"; if I had to draw a comparison, he's more like Brown. Outwardly dull but serious, diligent and professional. And, like Brown, I daresay that he'll make decisions that I disagree with. And, like Brown, Starmer will probably be looked upon more positively after his time in office. These days, I quite respect Brown despite having doubts about a number of his policies, especially at the time. He was a decent sort who wanted to do the right thing and just get on with the job (even if you disagree with how he went about it). I suspect that Starmer is the same.
I absolutely agree with your logic in this article though. Sure, there's a chance that a Labour government of 2025 will be terrible. They might be brilliant. Or somewhere in between. But what we DO know for sure is that the alternative - five more years of Tory rule - is definitely going to be bad because we already know what they're like in power. So, at the very least, the change to a Labour government will mean that things will stop getting worse. We've got nothing to lose by voting this bunch of bastards out.
And to address the accusation of "Labour and the Tories are the same": the fact that one party is ahead of the other in the polls indicates that most people don't think this at all. The polls would be placing them neck-and-neck if that were the case, surely?
I bought your cunting book, you cunt.
It has the best hard-open of any non-fiction I’ve read.
Deep Grayling.
I say it a lot but we can't let perfect be the enemy of good - Starmer impressed me in his Election launch Speech in Dudley not only did he put forward policy that is vital, important and logical based on issues the majority of the country can get behind, he actually answered a question by a journalist with a direct sensible answer and fuck me that is rare! I don't have any desire to sit and have a pint with him but then I wouldn't have have relished a night out with Clement Attlee either! I'll take an Attlee over another clown in a minefield no matter how enigmatic he/she is.
I’m reading your book, you total bstrd. And it’s not only brilliant, but really well written. Ta!
I liked Jeremy Corbyn. He seems to have real principles. Theres no front with him which sets him apart from other politicians, the trouble is, he needs to be a politician to win elections. I liked Keir Starmer too and chose him for the Leadership when I was a member because he was a Remainer. I left the party because of the civil war that ensued. Remain were the only ones making any sense to me. Brexit I knew was a load of crap. It didn’t take much digging to know that. It was sold by Johnson, the lies came thick and fast. I was disappointed that JC wasn’t opposed to it. Not of course because he was a conman like Johnson because he couldn’t see how it would be abused. And look what’s happened. I wince when I see KS appealing to Tory voters. It’s not how I remember any Labour Leader behaving but I get that the country is in a mess and well we can’t afford to be fussy. I did see him recently being interviewed. I think by Andrew Marr, and my partner was watching with me and we felt a wave a relief that this is “normal”. He was discussing a policy like an adult. I don’t even remember the policy but the relief. I am concerned about how he will behave after winning. I expect him to remember that he is a Labour Leader. I expect change. I hope he has integrity.
AI Reading of this article:
https://open.substack.com/pub/askwhocastsai/p/who-is-keir-starmer-by-ian-dunt
Re your point about caution, I think we can only really judge that after the GE campaign. I also don't think people are that bothered about parties sticking to the specifics of mandates these days.
Ok, ok. Seeing that you asked so nicely, I’ve bought your book.
Good article-and I've bought 2 copies you ungrateful bastard.
You have put my thoughts down once again and far more eloquently than I ever could.
Given what we have gone through since 2016 & even before that cataclysmic ref, I will take Starmer, flaws & all, over this obscene Tory party.
I believe he is a fundamentally decent man with 100% more idea of how to govern a country than all the so-called leaders we have endured recently.
He believes in the rule of law & I honestly don’t blame him for not showing his hand too early.
The damage the Tories have done is profound - it isn’t going to be easy, but I hope for my kids’ sake he can bring us back to something approaching the respect we once enjoyed as a democracy.
He must, though, tackle Brexit.
That is a fundamental mistake which he must address for our future wellbeing.
Making effective change needs a lot of people to cooperate patiently and with confidence in the face of difficulties and unknowns. Doing that in the face of a barrage of ill will from people without responsibility, and deliberately eschewing good faith in argument, must be very hard. Any one person, however skilled, cannot just direct change to happen, they can only create and maintain good conditions to enable others to play their own part in the work.
Obviously the government has to go but I think it is a mistake to dismiss Starmer’s record of persistent and systematic dishonesty. We should care more about that stuff.
The interesting thing, though, is that this hasn't affected Labour's poll ratings. So perhaps people just bake the expectation of deceitfulness into their view of how politicians should behave.
You’re probably right. We have definitely lowered our expectations for politicians. I do wonder if the campaign will affect how he is perceived. A bit like Theresa May, it will be the first time a lot of people will get there first look at him.
I remain extremely suspicious of him. You can't argue with his achievement of getting Labour from 2019 humiliation to 2024 govt-in-waiting, but it does seem to have come at the cost of enormous caution, which seems likely to make the changes we need extremely difficult.
But. He has two exceptionally difficult tasks in front of him. 1) Fixing all the stuff that doesn't work in this benighted country, and; 2) Persuading people that politicians can actually achieve things, rather than spout empty slogans and seek to divide us. And given the shitshow of the last eight/fourteen years, you can only wish him well.
I hope you are right that his technocratic, what-works approach will succeed. But it does feel very much like Things Can Only Get (A Little Bit) Better (But Don't Worry, Small-C Conservatives, Not Much Will Change remix)
Ah, thanks man, reading that felt good. I wish you were this candid on your TV appearances, searing the reality of Tory fuckupery into the national consciousness forever and ever.