Few in history can have achieved so much in a negative sense in so short a time.  Instead of gloatingly cresting the wave of success after securing British Labour a resounding, decisive victory in July 2024, Sir Keir Starmer is schooling us in precipitous decline. 

John Gray, that most erratic, protean of prophets, was already suggesting last year that the prime minister and his party were overseeing less “the rise of an all-powerful machine” than “another chapter in the story of Britain’s failing state.”  Not a week goes by without some sniping at the dull technocrat’s limp performances from unnamed insiders or nipping from the party hacks.  And let’s not forget the parasitic media stable, always willing to magnify matters in the factory of perceptions.

In fact, media magnification has done wonders to wither and sunder Starmer’s appeal, which, in the scheme of things, wasn’t grand to begin with.  Take this reading of the situation from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg towards the end of last month. “In the last few days I’ve spoken to 30 people across government and the party – ministers, MPs, advisers – to try to work out, as the prime minister makes his way to Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool, how much trouble is he really in?”  In the tradition of true British journalism, not a single name is given of the 30.  But they all have opinions they wish to air – anonymously.  

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