Keir Starmer lost power because he could not exert control and the loss of control spun out in circumstances where he had to make choices. And yes, he made several bad ones, but before we suffocate in smugness on this side of the Irish Sea, we should remember that the relative stability of our politics is based on the premise that no real choices are ever made.

Our politics are constrained by the rotation of office between the parties in government. Real responsibility doesn’t have the time or space to compound into consequences. Unlike in the United Kingdom where hard choices were attempted – between welfare spending and defence, for example – the Irish model is “one for everyone in the audience”, greased by the fastest growing increase in public expenditure in the EU and funded from the receipts of corporation tax.

This hard reality awaits his likely successor, Andy Burnham.

To put the conundrum in context, in May the UK borrowed £23.3 billion, up almost a third on the same month last year. May’s borrowing figure – the difference between spending and income from taxes – was £5.6 billion higher than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the independent fiscal watchdog. To increase spending proportionally much less than Ireland, he had to borrow increasingly more.

One woman’s recollection of abuse in Cork school cuts through the talk

Former sports coach (70s) accused of sexually assaulting four girls in 1970s and 1980s

Businessman (73) given 18-month suspended sentence over........

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