Heroes have faults too |
The chief function of the prime minister is to take the blame, and Sir Keir Starmer can no more escape this rule than his predecessors did. Having met him occasionally when he was my local MP, before he moved from Kentish Town to Downing Street, I feel a twinge of sympathy with him. He took trouble with unimportant people, could not have been more genial when I bumped into him at the Pineapple, his local pub, and on one occasion even asked if I could explain the attraction of Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg. I feared this task would be beyond my powers of exposition, and perhaps also his powers of comprehension, so changed the subject. But in those days Sir Keir had a sincerity which disarmed criticism. This is no longer the case. As PM he cannot conceal his all too genuine belief that the attacks on him are unfair. He evinces no acceptance that the buck stops with him.
But how easy it is to slip into the absurd pretence that if only the politician were as high-minded and rational as the pundit, all would be well. Nobody’s perfect. Voters know this, and choose the lesser of two evils. Commentators easily forget it, and start implying the existence of a........