Something for the weekend

It's going to be an uncomfortable weekend for the Starmer family, and not just due to the returning heatwave.

In the immediate aftermath of Andy Burnham's historic Makerfield by-election victory, the heat now is of the political rather than meteorological variety and, in politics, as the adage has it, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. This weekend break, with all the key combatants tired and frazzled, offers a welcome pause for reflection. If Starmer and his wife, Victoria, are at the PM's official country retreat of Chequers, what better opportunity to contemplate their future than the rural calm of Buckinghamshire and the discreet comfort of an English country house weekend.

Of course, contemplating the loss of this extraordinary perk of office might make it even more difficult to throw in the towel but all good things must come to an end - in politics usually much sooner and more unexpectedly than in other walks of life - and Starmer's time as PM is clearly drawing rapidly to its close. As his residual authority ebbs away what better time to go than now, at his own choosing, making a swift and dignified exit and thereby avoiding the grubby contest or triumphalist coronation that inevitably lies ahead if he does not. Lady Macbeth's words, often repurposed at moments of political high drama such as this, should be ringing in his ears: "stand not upon the order of your going but go at once".

There has been a lot of talk, much of it undoubtedly hypocritical, about allowing Starmer the dignity during this weekend's ceasefire to make the right decision. It's obvious, though, that this means deciding to follow Lady Ms advice to go at once. I very much doubt that he will be indulged any further than this weekend should he decide otherwise. There has also been much lamentation about the fate that has befallen a decent man. Crocodile tears and pious poppycock! The man gained office on a false leftwing prospectus, enabled by shady operators such as Peter Mandelson, Morgan McSweeney and Steve Reed, effectively hijacking the Labour Party to gain the leadership then promptly veering to the right on coming to power. And even then he didn't manage to pull off that coup with aplomb, becoming mired in messy backbench rebellions and government U-turns. He may be a good lawyer but he is a mendacious and, almost worse, disastrously inept politician.

Without a dramatic reset under Burnham, whom no-one could accuse of political ineptitude, Starmer's catastrophic premiership could quite conceivably consign Labour's future electoral chances to the dustbin of history, quite conceivably smoothing Reform's path to government in 2029. The achievements of the Labour government after two years, while far from inconsiderable, are simply not felt by the British people and much of that is down to Starmer's stodgy, stolid, technocratic persona. We certainly had too much 'charisma' under Boris Johnson but no-one respects boring. Churchill famously described Clement Attlee as, "a modest man, with much to be modest about" and yet Attlee's achievements in his single term in office far outweigh Starmer's, and have endured for eighty years.

First thing on Monday morning Starmer needs to do the decent thing and resign.