Was the departure of Prime Minister Starmer necessary?
In short, yes. He had two years as the leader of a new labour government with a crushing majority to take action. He did absolutely nothing as if he was still a backbencher in the opposition. He also made a massive error in inviting Peter Mendelsohn into his government when it was already well known that he had ties with Epstein. This showed a massive lack of judgment on his part (and he only had himself to blame for that one).
Will the new guy do any better, Andy Burnham has been a parliamentarian his entire adult life, from 2008 until 2016, when he became the mayor of Manchester. Will he be an effective Prime Minister, who knows, the truth is that Starmer has largely been an empty shirt for the entirety of his mandate, he has managed to make the far right look good. The same way Trump has made Iran's leadership sound reasonable (they are not – actually homicidal maniacs), and China as the most reasonable superpower (they are not – many many reasons).
It takes a special kind of moron to manage to fail on so many levels, and Keir Starmer managed to exceed my expectations at every level. Am I disappointed? Yes and no, the Conservatives needed a good few years in the opposition to "find their centre" they are not there yet. Labour still has two years before the next election cycle and Donald Trump is greatly diminished. The war in Iran has been a disaster, his non-participation in the Ukraine war (I just don't want to say his truly unbelievable support for Putin), and of course the most glaring and stupid self inflicted error – the Washington Monument reflecting pool! So the UK government has an opportunity, it just needs to follow the leads of Macron and Carney, they are both showing the road to middle power (a generous evaluation of the UK today).
Finally, on Brexit, let's be clear that war is over. The Conservative pushed for Brexit, made promises that never (or will never) materialized, but Labour never pushed back, taking the easy road — saying it's not their fight. There is no way in hell the EU will allow the UK back in, first they would need the approval of 27 different members. Secondly, Germany, the core ATM for Europe, is facing nearly impossible demographic challenges. Its headspace is not on the European Union but on the survival of Germany. Britain has to say goodbye to NATO, the special relationship with the US and admit what it has been since 1950 and the stand down of the Suez Canal. In international affairs it counts for nothing!
The new Prime Minister had a challenging 24 months ahead of him. But if Canada could do it maybe Andry can too (although unlikely). Still for now it's what we've got. Yes Keir had to go, because he was afraid of his shadow from day, and everyone knew it.
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