In his bestselling and influential turn-of-the-millennium book The Tipping Point, journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell explores what it is that makes “ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread like viruses do”. He identifies that particular phenomenon as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point”.

Rarely has Gladwell’s thesis been more applicable to political life than it is today. With the latest revelations around the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that our Prime Minister is approaching his own tipping point.

Sir Keir Starmer came to power on a ticket of competence. He represented a break with the chaotic, seat-of-your-pants style of government of the previous decade, his lawyerly manner and careful approach offering the promise of a safe pair of hands, at the least.

Yet here we are, with the very thing that was his stock in trade – due diligence – shot to pieces, sacrificed on the altar of an ambassadorial appointment that, according to his trusted foreign policy adviser Jonathan Powell, was “weirdly rushed”.

It is clear to all of us now, following the release of papers relating to Mandelson’s taking up of the post in Washington, that Starmer was guilty of a gross error of judgement. He admitted as much on Thursday. “It was me that made a mistake,” Starmer told reporters, “and........

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