What is happening to Starmer is because he neither has principles nor political instincts. It's McSweeney who is in his ear, leading him.
He seems to be under the impression he can somehow appease the likes of the Daily Mail. I think he's actually similar to Sunak in that way, One a banker, one a lawyer, both undeniably smart, but have no politics of their own, no passions or beliefs. A.I. leaders.
All they need to do is some/any of the progressive stuff that the Tories (a party who have just suffered the most comprehensive imaginable rejection by the electorate) would never do.
There's a lot of deeper structural issues to work on, but there are quick wins to be had, too. Pick anything from a menu of:
- Scrapping the two-child benefit cap
- Reinstate the Winter fuel payment
- Scrap the Bedroom Tax
- Pay the WASPI women
- Introduce rent caps
- Nationalise utilities and railways
- Restore council funding
- Raise the income tax thresholds
- Give public sector workers decent pay rises
- Invest in the asylum system to clear the backlog (thereby emptying the hotels) and to provide safe routes (thereby stopping the people trafficking and drownings)
- Increase disability benefits, rather than doubling-down on Tory cuts; etc.
And pay for it by making taxation fairer, like they said they would. And never, ever, pander to racists.
Instead, the most positive stuff we have had is just talk about what they are going to do - and we've already seen them repeatedly go back on their word, so they get no political capital for their guff and bluff.
