By Anna McShane

Labour arrives at its party conference in Liverpool next week with power, but without yet convincing the country it knows how to use it.

Labour arrives at its party conference in Liverpool next week with power, but without yet convincing the country it knows how to use it. The risk isn’t rage; it’s resignation. People aren’t angry so much as weary. They no longer believe government can make anything work. They are impatient, but not for much: services that function, rules that feel fair, and the sense that life is manageable again.

Keir Starmer’s election campaign was built on a “ming vase strategy”: carry a fragile coalition of voters carefully, no sudden moves, don’t drop it. That was the right approach to win. But a year on, the vase still looks pretty empty. Inside might be fragments of policy, but........

© LBC