Where the buck stops

As the UK Labour government limps towards its first anniversary in power Sir Keir Starmer must be thankful that this year the date falls on a Friday.

Friday is conventionally a quiet day in the House of Commons, with MPs returning to their constituencies for the weekend. With the government facing a significant backbench rebellion later today (Tuesday) on its controversial plans to cut disability benefit payments, Friday probably can't come soon enough for the beleaguered Prime Minister. But he only has himself to blame.

Christian May, editor-in-chief of City AM, in his editorial this morning posed the question many of us have been mulling for some time, "why can't Keir Starmer lead?" After so many false starts and U-turns it's a fair question. While fingers point at his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, Starmer is First Lord of the Treasury and, lest he should forget, it's helpfully engraved on the brass letterbox in the front door of his official residence, Number 10 Downing Street. He needs to get a grip.

Okay, so historically there's always been a tension between the occupants of Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street. Often that tension is creative - until it isn't. The struggles, both ideological and personal, between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are the stuff of legend. Similarly, David Cameron and George Osborne's relationship, though described as friendship, was often a fraught one. It's widely rumoured that Blair contemplated sacking or demoting Brown, who he described as "maddening", just as Cameron allegedly did with Osborne. The conclusion both reached? It was better (and drier) to have them inside the tent than outside.

Of course, all that was in the days when politics still had some 'big beasts'. Looking at the long list of Prime Ministers and Chancellors since Cameron and Osborne simultaneously resigned following the Brexit Referendum result in 2016, shows just how diminished the roles have become. The little people are in charge now, which brings us up-to-date with Starmer and Reeves. Christian May described Starmer as "an empty vessel" and I would rest my case there were it not that this phenomenon deserves further interrogation.

The decline in the stature of politicians used to be talked about pejoratively in terms of 'pygmies'. In fact, what African Pygmy tribes lacked in physical stature was more than compensated for by their successful adaptation to their environment - at least until the intrusion of modern 'civilisation'. What's the excuse of our politicians now I wonder? Maybe it's a form of evolutionary regression. Things don't necessarily fall apart but they often go backwards.

In truth, I suspect it's due to the diminution of power and influence in modern politics. The 'big beasts' would rather be exercising hard power, and making shed loads more money, as 'tech bros', untrammeled by the tedious restrictions of debate, compromise and scrutiny. The growth of multi-billionaires surely mirrors the decline in the quality of our political leadership in the same period. However, looking to others for strong leadership in our politics is chasing a chimera. We, the people, should be taking the lead.

Unless and until we do we get the political leadership we deserve.



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