A Creature of the Establishment

The odd thing about Sir Keir Starmer, or rather one of the odd things about him as a politician, is his failure to create the impression that he has ever had any intention of making life better for voters.

On the contrary, he creates the impression that he would never do anything for anyone beyond the Establishment. For a Labour leader this is weird.

It may be that all political leaders are like this, but Starmer is unusual in that he appears to see not the slightest need to hide it, as if he is entirely unaware of the political need to hide what he is as the person behind the politician. He comes across as a creature of the Establishment but can't hide it.

Current polling suggests Labour would lose nearly 300 seats if a general election were to be held tomorrow. Yet Starmer carries on as if it is not his job to offer the party a better poll performance via changes which could benefit Labour voters. As if Labour voters are not his concern because voters are not his concern.

The problem seems to be Keir Starmer's personality, his awkward, managerialist outlook which is poorly adapted to encouraging other people. As far as we can tell, other people are not particularly significant for him, so encouraging them is equally insignificant.

Yes he's a creature of the Establishment, we've known that for ages, but he isn't supposed to make it so obvious. That he continues to do so is weird.