Those complaints all miss the same point. Starmer's boringness is not a bug: it's a feature. Those puzzled by Labour's giant poll lead - thinking it odd that Starmer is ahead despite being so unexciting - fail to realise that Starmer is ahead because he is unexciting. There is method in his lack of madness. To be sure, the caution, the silences on whole areas of policy, may exact a price farther down the road, but for now, it's working.
Take the lament that Labour has offered no shiny new major policy initiative. It seems a failing, until you remember Theresa May - fighting what was the worst campaign in living memory, before Rishi Sunak asked her to hold his beer - threw away a 20-point poll lead in 2017 by proposing a social care policy that instantly became the "dementia tax". If she had said nothing, she would have done much better.
Indeed, Labour's fate under its previous leader is crucial to understanding the current strategy. The party made promises that ticked the boxes Labour's left critics urge Starmer to tick now: bold, radical, exciting. But they did not reassure voters that Labour would manage the economy properly. They did not inspire trust.
Denne historien er fra June 21, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra June 21, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Starlink's conquest of the Amazon leaves Brazil in a dilemma
The helicopter swooped into one of the most inaccessible corners of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian special forces commandos leaped from it into the caiman-inhabited waters below.
Dalai Lama's mountain town feels the strain of tourist boom
SUVs and saloon cars pass slowly along McLeod Ganj's narrow one-way Jogiwara Road, blaring horns at pedestrians and scooter riders and playing loud music.
'I am all the world' The brutal rule of a West Bank settler
Palestinians tell ofblacklisted Yakov's reign across the Jabal Salman valley and heisjust one of many violent bosses
Stormy waters New flashpoint emerges in South China Sea dispute
Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived.
'Justice delayed' Why trust in public inquiries to bring closure is fading
After the final report of the Grenfell fire inquiry was published, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members in the blaze, said: \"We did not ask for this inquiry... It's delayed the justice my family deserves.\"
Celeriac soup with almond pangrattato
I'm not ashamed to say that as soon as September hits, my stick blender comes out. Just as I embrace salads when the clocks go forward in the UK, I wholeheartedly throw myself into soup season once the summer holidays end. Autumn is approaching in the northern hemisphere and I'm ready with my ladle. Celeriac is one of my favourite soup heroes, because it gives the creamiest, silkiest finish with little effort. You don't have to make the almond pangrattato, but it is a wonderful addition.
Are smoke signals telling me to make an oil change in the kitchen?
Should you that is, not can you) cook with extra-virgin olive oil? Antonio, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Going underground
A darkly humorous encounter between an American spy-cop and the members ofan eco-commune she is hired to infiltrate
All work and no play
Hard Graft, a powerfulnew London exhibition, focuses onworkers’ exploitation, from the ruined hands ofa washerwoman to mothers forced to sell their bodies
What the princess and the shaman tell us about hereditary privilege
It should have been an Instagram-perfect wedding image, but it turned out to be something more embarrassing.
