Boundary changes for our constituency (Debate)

Fri 14 Jun, 21:50

There is an excellent and eloquent article today from the always sensible Jonathan Freedland that touches on many of the issues raised here about Labour’s restrained campaign and what they might actually do in office:

Is Keir Starmer really a political robot? Maybe he is, but he’s been programmed to win. In office, something very different will be required, but steady caution has brought Labour to the brink of power.

In the article he concludes: “Caution has been a wise means to win power. But, given the scale of the task that will confront the next government – a social fabric that lies in tatters, a weak economy, ailing public services and a country that feels broken – it is no guide for how that power should be used. All the daring, elan and ambition Labour has repressed in opposition, all the zeal to make things better, stronger and fairer that it has kept in check for so long, all that will have to be unleashed in office. In a reversal of the usual maxim, Labour has campaigned in prose – but it must govern in poetry.”

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For Valerie Stewart in particular, you may be interested in what another journalist wrote today about how managerial competence will be a key factor in a Labour administration (Farage cannot be defeated by rhetoric, he can only be defeated by competence). The author is no tribal politician and had this to say about Keir Starmer:

“Unlike other party leaders, indeed unlike politicians in general, he has run a large organisation. As director of public prosecutions, he was responsible for managing a department with 8,000 officials, organising hundreds of thousands of criminal cases every year. He personally visited all 42 regional divisions and met around a third of all staff. Tellingly, he asked senior management to leave the room when he did so, to make sure junior staff had the freedom to speak openly. That's key. It's how good management works: making sure the people who understand the real day-to-day work have lines of communication with senior levels.”

“This is all basically unheard of. Most people who are asked to become a secretary of state have never even run a small business, let alone a massive organisation. The same applies to prime ministers. There's almost no precedent in the British system for someone who knows what…they’re doing.”