THIS far into Keir Starmer’s term as prime minister, one thing is certain. Acting with ‘integrity’ is much easier said than done.

Unlike some of his Conservative predecessors, Starmer gave all the appearance of a man who had a safe pair of hands. A man too boring to be up to mischief. A plodder focused on delivery rather than soundbites.

The reality, we now know, is somewhat different. He is unquestionably one of the most useless politicians to walk through the door of No 10 Downing Street.

Useless is bad. Unprincipled and useless is worse, and that is what Starmer has demonstrated himself to be.

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The only good thing that can be said about him is that he has more or less stayed clear of the north, though that has not been enough to insulate the economy here from Labour’s mismanagement, nor is it enough to shield vulnerable people and the elderly from Labour’s wilful decisions on pensions and welfare.

There’s a joke about a boy in ‘Balloon Land’ who runs amok with a pin. Called to account for the pile of deflated rubber around him, he’s told: “You have let your family down, you have let your teachers down and you have let your school down.”

That punchline applies to Starmer, who was elected in the hope that he would bring stability to a country punch-drunk after the reckless reign of the Tories. He’s done more than “let the school down” – he’s let his whole country down.

Now, the prime minister, and the party he represents, is about to get its comeuppance.

Next week’s elections across Britain are likely to result in significant gains for nationalist Plaid Cymru in Wales and it will certainly secure the Scottish National Party in office for yet another term, igniting once more the fight for independence.

Once again voters here in the north are bystanders, robbed of any agency by our colonial masters.

When, oh when, will voters across the north recognise that they are being played for fools by a government which cares nothing for what they want?

Meanwhile, people here are forced to look on impotently as Westminster politicians play games.

Last week’s shenanigans about who did what when in relation to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador are far removed from what voters really need.

That much must be apparent to the members of the Labour Party. Why then have they refused to put Starmer and the rest of us out of his misery?

None of the excuses for inaction stack up – least of all the notion that there’s no-one fit to replace him.

Everyone is replaceable, Starmer particularly so.

With every week Labour dithers, the prospect of another long term in opposition increases. If the party had acted sooner, it might not be looking at the prospect of a wipe-out in Wales and Scotland.

It would certainly have avoided the shambles at the heart of Britain’s government revealed this past week.

The summary execution of Foreign Office head Olly Robbins demonstrates one of the most appalling of Starmer’s character flaws: his refusal to accept responsibility, and his readiness to scapegoat the people in his team.

The list of people from his inner circle culled in his short time as prime minister include two cabinet secretaries, two chiefs of staff, his director of communications and his head of the Foreign Office.

Starmer is happy to wallow in the trappings of power – playing the international statesman, toadying up to the President of the United States, and wrapping himself in the Union flag. He is even willing to disrespect the king by forcing him to kow-tow to Donald Trump.

But when it comes to being accountable for what he’s done, Starmer always finds someone else to blame.

Like a latter-day Billy Bunter, he denies eating doughnuts, yet there’s jam dripping down his face. That jam was over the dispatch box last week as he defended his dismissal of Robbins as the Foreign Office’s chief civil servant.

There’s been a lot of hot air this past week about the whys and wherefores of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Britain’s ambassador to the Court of King Donald. The row over vetting was a distraction.

The original sin was Starmer’s cynical decision to appoint Mandelson in the first place. For that decision alone he should be strung from the proverbial gallows.

He did not need the massed ranks of Britain’s securocrats to tell him that Mandelson was a security risk and unfit for office. He just needed to read the newspapers.

In its heart, Labour members know that. Once they get the May elections out of the way, they need to force Starmer from office and get down to the job Labour was elected to do.

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