By Dani Garavelli

WITH the UK helter-skeltering towards oblivion, what voters crave is a route map out of the mess we’re in: someone - ANYONE - with a clear-eyed vision for the future.

Instead, as the General Election approaches, what they are confronted with are parties too consumed with their own internal hand-wringing to come up with and stick to a coherent plan.

Last week - on the day it emerged global warming had, for the first time, exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius across a 12-month period - Keir Starmer reneged on Labour’s one big, bold policy: £28bn a year on green investment.

The original pledge - announced by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves - had a dual purpose: to move towards net zero, and drive growth, through the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries, offshore wind turbines and home insulation.

Now the spending and ambition have been slashed in a display of financial prudence and adherence to fiscal rules of the party’s own devising. Days after promising to stand firm against all comers, Starmer folded like a deckchair. Not so much Iron Lady as Origami Man. If he cannot hold his nerve with a 20-plus% lead in the polls, what principles will he shed when his party’s back is against the wall?

Starmer said it was all the Tories’ fault for crashing the economy; and, paradoxically, that the revised investment figure of £4.7bn extra spending a year would be enough to deliver much of its existing plan. But the clear blue line between Labour and Conservative on climate change has splodged; and, once again, Starmer looks weak and mission-less.

His U-turn came in the face of “borrowing bombshell” jibes from Rishi Sunak and the Daily Mail (it was ever thus), but also as a result of internal splits. Increasingly, the Shadow Cabinet’s capacity for policy-making appears to be stymied by the ultra-cautious tendencies of key back-room figures and advisers, such as campaign director Morgan McSweeney and campaign coordinator Pat McFadden.

They may........

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