DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Shallow Sir Keir is taking voters for fools
There was a touch of the fervent television evangelist about Sir Keir Starmer as he addressed the Labour conference.
Eyes gleaming, voice rising to a crescendo, he offered the faithful a glimpse of the promised land that awaited Britain should his party win power.
And oh, the wonders he described! A future free from anxiety. An end to the age of insecurity. Fixing tomorrow’s challenges, today. A decade of national renewal.
Echoing Rishi Sunak’s diagnosis of the country’s ills during last week’s Tory shindig, Sir Keir said this would require ‘an entirely new approach to politics’. One that he bizarrely called: ‘Mission Government.’
But what exactly does it mean? And while the Labour leader left the country with no reason to doubt his seriousness of vision, rather less clear was how that vision would be achieved.
Eyes gleaming, voice rising to a crescendo, Sir Keir offered the faithful a glimpse of the promised land that awaited Britain should his party win power
To be fair to Sir Keir, this was one of his best speeches. But despite deserving credit for dragging his party back to the centre, it shouldn’t be forgotten he campaigned enthusiastically to inflict the catastrophe of a Jeremy Corbyn premiership on Britain.
Labour has barely needed to make a positive case to the electorate to secure a large – though diminishing – lead in the polls. It has capitalised on anger at the Tories’ own ineptitude and internal battles.
But with an election in the offing, voters deserve to know in specific detail how Labour would change their lives for the better.
Dispiritingly, Sir Keir’s speech – long on rhetoric, but woefully short on substance – left them little wiser.
His blueprint for the UK involves a better NHS, safer streets, more opportunities for people and cleaner, green energy. But who’s not in favour of those things!
The only new policy was to re-designate large areas of green belt land as ‘grey belt’, as part of plans to construct 1.5million homes in five years, including the ‘next generation’ of towns. But countryside campaigners warn this risks an explosion in urban sprawl.
His vow to ‘speed ahead’ with net zero, reversing Mr Sunak’s more proportionate approach, might have won plaudits from eco-activists, but it would place a huge financial burden on millions of ordinary families.
What was most significant about Sir Keir’s speech was not what it said but what it didn’t. Notably, he didn’t mention the small boats crisis and record levels of legal migration – despite voters clamouring for a crackdown. We know why. Sir Keir is a paid-up member of the open borders brigade.
Starmer campaigned enthusiastically to inflict the catastrophe of a Jeremy Corbyn premiership on Britain
Nor did he have anything to say on tax, his plans for Brexit, how he’d deal with striking public sector workers, or wokery.
Perhaps he thinks the safest course of action is to stay silent on controversial issues so there is less to attack. But it is cowardly.
In his speech, Sir Keir attacked Mr Sunak and the Tories for being the ‘shallow men and women of Westminster’.
By refusing to flesh out his agenda for power, he has proved he has no greater depth himself.
A shameful own goal
While the people of Israel reel from the evil Hamas attack, the ethically bankrupt sport of football is sitting on its hands.
When it comes to taking the knee for Black Lives Matter, wearing rainbow laces for LGBT causes or expressing support after natural disasters in Africa, the FA and Premier League are quick to virtue-signal.
But after hundreds of innocent Israelis were slaughtered by psychopaths just for being Jews, their silence has been deafening.
After hundreds of innocent Israelis were slaughtered by psychopaths just for being Jews, the the FA and Premier League’s silence has been deafening
To show solidarity with the victims, the FA could illuminate Wembley’s arch in the colours of the Israel flag during England’s match on Friday, while the Premier League could make a like-minded gesture.
But bone-headed bosses shamefully refuse to act amid fears of a backlash from pro-Palestine activists.
As ever, in the superficial world of football, morality is the loser.
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