Flabby

Starmer: I will tackle our flabby state

Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the British state has become “overcautious and flabby”.

“People want a state that will take care of the big questions, not a bigger state that asks more from them,” he says. “We need to be operating at maximum efficiency and strength.

“I believe in the power of the state. I’m not interested in ideological arguments about whether it should be bigger or smaller. I simply want it to work.”

He says that the state was at its best – “dynamic, strong and urgent” – in response to last summer’s riots, but admits: “That’s not the state that most people will recognise”.

"I believe in the power of the state" - we knew that, but therein lies the problem, that and mendacity, incompetence, lack of experience, futile ideology, censoring the dissident, inadequate colleagues, a fractured culture, failing policies, misplaced public optimism, dishonest media, too many narcissists, poor advice, too many quangos, a lack of accountability and an absurd reliance on slogans. 

For example, what the blue blazes was “dynamic, strong and urgent” if it wasn't good evidence of an automatic instinct towards censorship and repression?