I do wish that those who should know better would stop describing the appointment of Mandelson as a failure of the state. It isn’t. It is the failure of Starmer to understand what is expected of him as a politician and a Prime Minister. The tragedy for the country is that he hasn’t a clue how to be either. Worse, he doesn’t seem to care, nor think that self awareness and emotional intelligence is remotely relevant to the job. He is a member of a rather strange cult. Human rights lawyers.
To Starmer it’s all terribly simple. Read the brief. Dig into the weeds. Win the intellectual argument. Problem solved. I wish that politics was that simple. And so does he. But he hasn’t grasped it yet;and never will.
He will win the confidence vote on whenever it comes. Or rather the whips will. Dire threats. Juicy promises. The usual carrots and sticks. With the honeyed lie that Starmer is an honest and decent man. Really? Honest and decent men don’t throw honest and decent public servants under the nearest bus to save their own miserable skins. His squeals of ‘I was never told…..I was lied to….kept in the dark’ are becoming more and more bizarre. And dishonest.
And Romeo; Romeo where art thou Romeo? I’ll give you a clue. Trying to keep the shit show on the road. Just remember that she is a career civil servant who won’t want to be tarred with the Starmer brush. She has made serious enemies in the Foreign Office. So in the balloon game of government she might be the next one to be thrown out of the basket. Unwise.
Olly Robbins threw him the lifeline of plausible deniability, except it wasn’t particularly plausible, but better than nothing. Instead he was and is being briefed against as is the Foreign Office. The real fireworks will be on Tuesday when Robbins gives evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. And remember that Emily Thornberry was humiliated by Starmer because he refused her a job. Briefing against decent people is a Starmer addiction. Streeting, Burnham, McSweeney. Anyone who gets in the way of the honest and decent man.
It’s a little bit like Murder on the Orient Express; everyone has a motive for bumping Starmer off. But who will rise to the challenge? Soon the ball will come out of the scrum.
So on Monday let’s look out for the glum Labour faces and In particular the abstentions. And Kemi who commands the Commons with a mixture of devilment, charm and utter ruthlessness will offer him no quarter. Cometh the hour cometh the removal van. But not quite yet. The best is yet to come.