Biden was never articulate and this turned to incoherence under the impact of his advancing age. Starmer has no such excuse, but his ineffectiveness as a communicator opened up a doorway for Reform UK to march through in the elections on Thursday. His inadequacy as a leader matters much in an era of populist nationalist politicians who cultivate a personality cult and can best be fought by a charismatic opponent.
Despite the massive unpopularity of his predecessors, he largely continued their policies at home and abroad. He unwisely tried to beat Reform at their own game by sounding tough on immigration, but this tactic seldom works because a right-wing party can simply become more right-wing.
There was something comically self-destructive about the way that Starmer and his Cabinet kept blaming everything that went wrong on 14 years of Tory austerity – and then doubled down on the same much-detested policies by reducing winter fuel payments for pensioners and personal independence payments for the disabled. Labour voters were disillusioned, and the public left with a sense that the Government did not know what it was doing.
But Starmer’s jeremiads about the condition in which the Tories left the economy were overdone, giving the impression that the UK ship of state was not just in a bad way but was holed below the waterline and in imminent danger of sinking.
Liberals need leaders
One of the big benefits of Labour’s decisive defeat of the Tories in 2024 was that it looked likely to end the years of self-destructive political chaos that had started with the Brexit referendum in 2016.
Such an outcome was not inevitable. Combating populist nationalist movements is a difficult political art, but Labour never made up its mind if it wanted to try to steal Farage’s political clothes, or to launch a full-scale attack on Reform as made up of dangerous extremists.
Compare this timidity with the aggression shown by the urbane central banker, Mark Carney, the new Prime Minister of Canada thanks to his robust response to Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the nation becoming a “cherished 51st state” of the US. Canadian Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre – a few months back considered a shoo-in to win – lost his parliamentary seat, which he had held for 21 years.
Their Civil Service and judicial backgrounds mean that their instincts are not geared for this type of fight. Trump-type political leaders like Nigel Farage specialise in dealing with and exploiting the media. Opponents without these skills are at an immense disadvantage.
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Trump’s great strength in or out of the White House has always been his ability to determine the news agenda every day by headline-grabbing with outrageous tweets or at constant improvised press conferences.
On the other hand, it is difficult to see how they will be stopped by the Labour Party under its present leadership.
Could the turmoil in Europe give Starmer the opportunity to resurrect himself as a national leader?
Many still view it that way, but look at the failure of the EU or Nato to cope with, still less produce solutions for, crises in Ukraine, Gaza or the US under Trump.
Disapprove though they do of Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, the EU states have not produced an alternative – for the very good reason that they could never agree on one.
Already, the Starmer Government has a lame-duck feel to it, despite its massive majority. Commentary saying that this week’s elections were of historic importance may be more correct than most such claims.
The success of Reform is bad news for the UK because populist-nationalist parties are essentially propaganda machines, peddling fake solutions for real crises.
Further Thoughts
But nobody is likely to be digging vastly expensive mines in Ukraine until the war is over, so what exactly has Zelensky or Trump gained? The agreement establishes an investment vehicle – inoperative for the present – but gives Ukraine no security guarantees against Russian attack.
From the White House’s point of view, the usefulness of the investment deal may be that Trump needed some concrete achievement – such as this agreement – to mask his diplomatic frustration.
But it is important to notice a huge military development during this three-year-old war which is of great geopolitical significance. As in the First World War, the defence – be it Russian or Ukrainian – is generally having the upper hand over the attack.
The hypocrisy of the UK Government when it comes to the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza continues to know no bounds.
The statement read out in the Lords said that “during the visit, we reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to advancing a two-state solution as the only pathway to achieving just and lasting peace in the Middle East, where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace, dignity and security”. Of course, the two-state solution has been dead for at least 20 years and everybody knows that, including the British Government.
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In case anybody in Washington or Tel Aviv should still care where the UK Government stands – or fails to stand – on Gaza, the Foreign Office has warned senior British lawyers that they risk sanctions from the Trump administration for advice they provided to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Cockburn’s Picks
The elimination of Syria as a united nation state has been an ongoing process since the Arab Spring in 2011 which marked the start of the Syrian Civil War.
Little noticed by an outside world absorbed in the doings of Trump and the Ukraine war, the disintegration is now reaching a point of no return as Israeli aircraft struck at will in the heart of Damascus on Friday, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
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